Your Fresh Vegetables Could Be Sucking Up Plastic Right From The Soil

Tiny nanoplastic fragments present in soil can make their way into the edible parts of vegetables, research has found.

A team of scientists from the University of Plymouth in the UK placed radishes into a hydroponic (water-based) system containing polystyrene nanoparticles.

After five days, almost 5 percent of the nanoplastics had made their way into the radish roots. A quarter of those were in the edible, fleshy roots, while a tenth had traveled up to the higher leafy shoots, despite anatomical features within the plants that typically screen harmful material from the soil.

"Plants have a layer within their roots called the Casparian strip, which should act as a form of filter against particles, many of which can be harmful," says physiologist Nathaniel Clark.

"This is the fir