{
  "id": 14475922,
  "title": "Microplastics are chemically active and could cause biological harm",
  "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/10/14/microplastics-are-chemically-active-and-could-cause-biological-harm",
  "topic": "science",
  "section": "Science",
  "published": "2026-10-14T15:01:03.000Z",
  "source": {
    "name": "Phys.org",
    "slug": "phys-org",
    "url": "https://phys.org/news/2026-10-microplastics-chemically-biological.html"
  },
  "original_language": "en",
  "account": null,
  "summary": "Plastics are supposed to be chemically inert. It's the reason they're used so frequently to package food, bottle water and create children's toys: They're safe. But something important happens when a large piece of plastic fragments into micro- and nanoparticles. Its surface area increases dramatically relative to its volume. Vastly more of the material is now exposed to its surroundings.",
  "key_points": [],
  "editors_take": null,
  "illustration": null,
  "coverage": {
    "outlets": 1,
    "also_reported_by": []
  },
  "ai_generated": true,
  "disclaimer": "Summaries, key points and the editor’s take are written by software from other outlets’ reporting and may contain errors — always check the linked original."
}