Microplastics Found Throughout the Great Lakes Remain Largely Unregulated

More than 40 million people in the United States and Canada rely on the Great Lakes for their drinking water, including residents across Chicago and its suburbs. A Chicago Tribune investigation reports that treated lake water carries tiny bits of plastic, known as microplastics, made from chemicals linked to cancer and other diseases.

The contamination also reaches fish caught in the lakes, a staple of Midwestern fish fries and fish boils and an important part of the diet for Indigenous tribes, some immigrant communities and communities of color.

Despite the scope of the problem, microplastic pollution is not regulated, and the Tribune reports that plastics manufacturers are moving to sharply increase production.

Illinois took a step this summer by becoming the first state in the Great Lakes region to designate industrial plastic pellets, known as nurdles, as pollution, requiring companies to report spills and limit pellets in storm runoff.