Many scientists have argued that microplastics pose a real, if often subtle, threat to human health. A study out this week may provide a vital clue as to how this harm is happening.

Researchers at Columbia University and others took a close look at how microplastics behave in water. They found that when plastic is broken up into tiny fragments and surrounded by water, it can easily produce highly reactive molecules. Though more study is still needed to understand the exact health impacts of microplastics, the team’s work undercuts the assumption that plastic is always chemically passive, the authors say.

“Our findings challenge the prevailing paradigm of plastic inertness [and] identify a possibly overlooked mechanism for the detrimental effects of microplastics on health and the environment,” they wrote in their paper, published Wednesday in the journal Nature.

Microplastics are any piece of plastic smaller than 5 millimeters. Over the years, scientists have increasingly raised the alarm about the likely dangers of microplastics for both people and other animals.

We know that plastics commonly contain chemicals that can mimic and possibly disturb the functioning of some natural hormones. There is also some research suggesting that microplastics can directly harm our bodies, but the data on these potential risks is more limited.

One reason why plastics are so widely used in society is that they’re supposed to be chemically inert under normal circumstances. The researchers’ experiments, however, indicate that this assumption doesn’t hold true once plastics are broken down into the tiny pieces that can enter our bodies.

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