Tropical Locusts Exacerbate Nanoplastic Pollution

Recent monitoring by French research institutions has revealed that after tropical locusts consume and digest plastic, they break it down into smaller, more toxic nanoplastic particles, releasing approximately 610 billion microplastics into the atmosphere each year (equivalent to the volume of 18 Olympic-sized swimming pools). These particles can spread globally via atmospheric circulation, eventually settling in the oceans and on land, entering the human body through the food chain, and posing a long-term threat to respiratory and reproductive health.