Endocrine-disrupting chemicals typically enter the body through ingesting or heating plastics, leaching into food and water, while microplastics are thought to cause mechanical disruption of tissues.

“Those are t that's typically how we think about the endocrine disrupting chemicals getting into our bodies is actually through like eating out of the plastic, heating the plastic, it leeches into the water, it leeches into the food that we're eating. That's that's what I think of when I think about endocrine disruption. Whereas microplastics, I'm thinking about more like mechanical disruption of the tissues themselves.”