Microplastic contamination is now well known. Many people will have heard that the seas are polluted with the particles. Some will know our bodies can be just as contaminated.
But these facts are just the headlines of the microplastic story. To learn more about the issue, Technology Networks hosted an Ask Me Anything with Andre Dick Vethaak, a professor emeritus of micro- nanoplastics and human health research at Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam.
This event was held in 2023, and Dr. Dick Vethaak has since passed away. His obituary from Momentum, the microplastics research consortium he helped found, can be read here.
The following questions were posed by several Technology Networks audience members.
Lucy Lawrence (LL):
Senior Digital Content Producer
Lucy was a Digital Content Producer at Technology Networks for four years, where she helped grow the company’s video content products. During her time in Technology Networks, she created many high-quality and engaging videos and podcasts for our clients’ target audience. Lucy left Technology Networks in April 2025 to pursue other career goals.
Can you explain to us, in simple terms, what microplastics are and how they differ from your regular kind of plastics?
Senior Guest Scientist
VU University, Amsterdam
We are saddened to acknowledge the passing of Prof. Dick Vethaak on June 1, 2024.
There are different definitions, which makes it quite complicated. Microplastics are small plastic particles. They’re not soluble in water, and they have a maximum size of five millimeters, but they're usually much smaller. They can be as small as a virus, for example. You have different compositions as well, because there's so many different polymer types. So, it’s not just one contaminant; it's a class of very diverse and variable components.
LL:
Senior Digital Content Producer
Lucy was a Digital Content Producer at Technology Networks for four years, where she helped grow the company’s video content products. During her time in Technology Networks, she created many high-quality and engaging videos and podcasts for our clients’ target audience. Lucy left Technology Networks in April 2025 to pursue other career goals.
What about airborne microplastics?
ADV:
Senior Guest Scientist
VU University, Amsterdam
We are saddened to acknowledge the passing of Prof. Dick Vethaak on June 1, 2024.
Everything that is made of plastics in your household can produce airborne plastic particles. They deposit in dust on the floor. That’s why we suggest to ventilate your house regularly. There was a study published a couple of years ago that illustrated very well what's going on there. [The researchers] looked at mussels and filter feeders, and [the mussels] contained relatively high concentrations of microplastics. Now, if you cook them, and you put that plate of mussels on your kitchen table, there will be more microplastics on your plate than in the mussels themselves.
LL:
Senior Digital Content Producer
Lucy was a Digital Content Producer at Technology Networks for four years, where she helped grow the company’s video content products. During her time in Technology Networks, she created many high-quality and engaging videos and podcasts for our clients’ target audience. Lucy left Technology Networks in April 2025 to pursue other career goals.
Could you explain the concept of bioaccumulation and how it relates to the spread of microplastics in the food chain?
ADV:
Senior Guest Scientist
VU University, Amsterdam
We are saddened to acknowledge the passing of Prof. Dick Vethaak on June 1, 2024.
Let’s say a crab eats a mussel – it will be exposed to the same microplastics that are contained in the mussel, so the levels build up. The transfer to the food chain means that there is a chance that you accumulate microplastics because you eat more contaminated animals. Sea salt is another source as well.
Since the 2000s, we have found these microplastics everywhere. We now know that plants take up plastics via the roots. It's quite difficult to avoid any exposure, but you can reduce it.
Senior Digital Content Producer
Lucy was a Digital Content Producer at Technology Networks for four years, where she helped grow the company’s video content products. During her time in Technology Networks, she created many high-quality and engaging videos and podcasts for our clients’ target audience. Lucy left Technology Networks in April 2025 to pursue other career goals.
Are there any substances in microplastics that are being broken down into concerning byproducts?
ADV:
Senior Guest Scientist
VU University, Amsterdam
We are saddened to acknowledge the passing of Prof. Dick Vethaak on June 1, 2024.
Yes, absolutely. That is the whole issue here. Plastics are made of polymer materials with chemical additives, and these can leach out into your food, into the air, etc. I think more than 10,000 chemical additives have been identified already. There was a publication published by the Endocrine Society where it estimated that US healthcare costs related to chemicals in plastic reached $250 billion in 2018.
Senior Digital Content Producer
Lucy was a Digital Content Producer at Technology Networks for four years, where she helped grow the company’s video content products. During her time in Technology Networks, she created many high-quality and engaging videos and podcasts for our clients’ target audience. Lucy left Technology Networks in April 2025 to pursue other career goals.
Could you discuss the consortium you’re part of?
ADV:
Senior Guest Scientist
VU University, Amsterdam
We are saddened to acknowledge the passing of Prof. Dick Vethaak on June 1, 2024.
In 2018 we started with 15 breakthrough projects – high risk projects on microplastics and health, some of which have been published. One is a study on microplastics in human blood. Taking the results from these studies together with long term knowledge, we developed a consortium we called Momentum, because it's based on the momentum gained in this breakthrough project. The idea is to build a Dutch national infrastructure for research into microplastics and nanoplastics. We have many partners aboard already, including not only governmental partners but also private partners and public partners and big companies and SMEs.
LL:
Senior Digital Content Producer
Lucy was a Digital Content Producer at Technology Networks for four years, where she helped grow the company’s video content products. During her time in Technology Networks, she created many high-quality and engaging videos and podcasts for our clients’ target audience. Lucy left Technology Networks in April 2025 to pursue other career goals.
How do you detect microplastics?
ADV:
Senior Guest Scientist
VU University, Amsterdam
We are saddened to acknowledge the passing of Prof. Dick Vethaak on June 1, 2024.
Well, you can see the very large particles with the naked eye. Obviously, for the smaller ones you need to have a microscope. For the very, very small ones, we don't yet have the right methods.
There are two different ways you can try to find the particles themselves; you can look at the number of particles and the sizes. You can also destroy everything that is plastic and try to find out what is coming from these plastics in terms of mass. So you have the mass versus particle counts. Yet, there's still much more study needed to standardize these methods, further develop them and make them more sensitive.
Senior Digital Content Producer
Lucy was a Digital Content Producer at Technology Networks for four years, where she helped grow the company’s video content products. During her time in Technology Networks, she created many high-quality and engaging videos and podcasts for our clients’ target audience. Lucy left Technology Networks in April 2025 to pursue other career goals.
What are the predicted effects of infertility from long-term microplastic exposure?
ADV:
Senior Guest Scientist
VU University, Amsterdam
We are saddened to acknowledge the passing of Prof. Dick Vethaak on June 1, 2024.
There are some studies that have found associations with infertility, but these are mainly animal studies. It’s the hypothesis for humans that needs to be tested further. But there is a huge impact already from these endocrine-disrupting chemicals, these plastic additives, on the reproduction and development processes. So, whether microplastics have an effect on early life is something that is probably the case, but it needs further study.
LL:
Senior Digital Content Producer
Lucy was a Digital Content Producer at Technology Networks for four years, where she helped grow the company’s video content products. During her time in Technology Networks, she created many high-quality and engaging videos and podcasts for our clients’ target audience. Lucy left Technology Networks in April 2025 to pursue other career goals.
What are the emerging areas of microplastic research in the next five years?
Senior Guest Scientist
VU University, Amsterdam
We are saddened to acknowledge the passing of Prof. Dick Vethaak on June 1, 2024.
Well, for me, we should have more understanding of how many plastics are in our bodies, and that means that we have to further develop these methods and do more biomonitoring studies. Another emerging issue is, of course, how this associates with clinical endpoints, for example, obesity or heart diseases or lung cancer. And that means that you really have to do epidemiological research, which is long term research. Bit by bit, there are more and more indications that maybe something is going on there, that microplastics and nanoplastics in particular may contribute to these modern diseases, but there’s a long way to go until we have hard evidence.
LL:
Senior Digital Content Producer
Lucy was a Digital Content Producer at Technology Networks for four years, where she helped grow the company’s video content products. During her time in Technology Networks, she created many high-quality and engaging videos and podcasts for our clients’ target audience. Lucy left Technology Networks in April 2025 to pursue other career goals.
What is your opinion on using reference models to mimic the effects of micro and nanoplastics?
ADV:
Senior Guest Scientist
VU University, Amsterdam
We are saddened to acknowledge the passing of Prof. Dick Vethaak on June 1, 2024.
That is one of the ways forward. We are exposed, as humans, to many types of ambient particles, not only plastic particles. There are many natural particles and other non-plastic particles around. The exhaust pipes that produce all these diesel exhaust follicles, for example. And we know already that that is causing high rates of mortality worldwide. I would like to know how unique these plastic particles are compared to others.
Senior Digital Content Producer
Lucy was a Digital Content Producer at Technology Networks for four years, where she helped grow the company’s video content products. During her time in Technology Networks, she created many high-quality and engaging videos and podcasts for our clients’ target audience. Lucy left Technology Networks in April 2025 to pursue other career goals.
Is there a reliable method to remove microplastics from sewage water and washing machines?
ADV:
Senior Guest Scientist
VU University, Amsterdam
We are saddened to acknowledge the passing of Prof. Dick Vethaak on June 1, 2024.
Well, the sewage treatment plants already catch, let’s say, 90% of the particles. So, when the effluent is driving in the rivers and in the green environment, in seas, it's already filtered for 90%. There are filters for washing machines. I think it’s a quick win.
LL:
Senior Digital Content Producer
Lucy was a Digital Content Producer at Technology Networks for four years, where she helped grow the company’s video content products. During her time in Technology Networks, she created many high-quality and engaging videos and podcasts for our clients’ target audience. Lucy left Technology Networks in April 2025 to pursue other career goals.
Do you have concerns about contamination from medical devices?
ADV:
Senior Guest Scientist
VU University, Amsterdam
We are saddened to acknowledge the passing of Prof. Dick Vethaak on June 1, 2024.
Yeah, that is another big thing. I mean, there are so many single-use plastics used in the surgery rooms. It's amazing. We need to replace these plastics with more safe, circular materials. And that transition will take time – maybe another decade.
Senior Digital Content Producer
Lucy was a Digital Content Producer at Technology Networks for four years, where she helped grow the company’s video content products. During her time in Technology Networks, she created many high-quality and engaging videos and podcasts for our clients’ target audience. Lucy left Technology Networks in April 2025 to pursue other career goals.
Does nylon belong to the plastic family, and would that then give off microplastics?
ADV:
Senior Guest Scientist
VU University, Amsterdam
We are saddened to acknowledge the passing of Prof. Dick Vethaak on June 1, 2024.
Nylon is one of the polymer types we are investigating in our consortium. And I can tell you there is something wrong with nylon. There is a publication just out from our consortium; we exposed nylon fibers to a lung tissue model and we found effects on the development and the function of these lung cells. We think it's probably a chemical additive that is causing this problem ,not the particle itself. And that means everybody that is wearing nylon and is exposed or inhaling these nylon particles could be exposed to these chemical additives that may have an impact on the development of young children.
LL:
Senior Digital Content Producer
Lucy was a Digital Content Producer at Technology Networks for four years, where she helped grow the company’s video content products. During her time in Technology Networks, she created many high-quality and engaging videos and podcasts for our clients’ target audience. Lucy left Technology Networks in April 2025 to pursue other career goals.
What challenges do you specifically come across when studying microplastics?
ADV:
Senior Guest Scientist
VU University, Amsterdam
We are saddened to acknowledge the passing of Prof. Dick Vethaak on June 1, 2024.
The big issue of this detection and quantification of microplastics in an environmental matrix or in human tissues in our blood, because these plastics are everywhere; you have to reduce as much as possible the influence of the sources on your sample because it contaminates your sample because so many products are made of plastics, even in laboratories. And so that is one of the things that that is really difficult to tackle. You have to work in a completely clean room.
The above content is a transcription of Dr. Andre Dick Vethaak’s 2023 AMA interview. It has been edited for clarity and flow to ensure a better reading experience. While every effort has been made to preserve the original content and meaning, some minor adjustments have been made to improve readability.
Following his passing in June 2024, Dick Vethaak has not reviewed this article.
