Time: A Key Driver of Uncertainty When Assessing the Risk of Environmental Plastics to Human Health

Smart cities at risk: Systemic risk drivers in the blind spot of long-term governance

In this article, we analyze "digital massification" in smart cities, that is, an ever-growing number of market participants, consumers, and Internet of Things devices with simultaneous accommodation of users to increasing disturbances and inconveniences due to data congestion-as a driver for systemic risk. We argue that digital massification phenomena largely escape societal awareness due to their protracted evolution and are therefore still in the blind spot of long-term governance. Our analysis makes methodological use of historical and relational analogy, and we introduce and elaborate concepts and terms that allow us to discuss the evolutionary nature of massification, that is, the foreseeable increasing probability of the occurrence of trigger events. Using the analogy to the history of road traffic congestion, we deduce that digital massification will most likely lead to a future "risk transition" where tolerated disturbances and inconveniences of the present will turn into systemic impacts. This insight calls for heightened sensitivity in governance to massification phenomena to ensure the long-term resilience of smart cities.

Is There Evidence of Health Risks From Exposure to Micro- and Nanoplastics in Foods?

The human health impact of exposure to micro (MP) and nanoplastics (NP) from food remains unknown. There are several gaps in knowledge that prevent a complete risk assessment of them. First, the fact that some plastics may be chemically harmful, either directly toxic themselves or because they absorb and carry other components, which makes these particles may possess 3 types of hazards, physical, chemical and biological. In addition, the levels at which toxic effects may occur are unknown and there is a lack of studies to estimate the levels to which we are exposed. Plastic particles can induce physical stress and damage, apoptosis, necrosis, inflammation, oxidative stress and immune responses, which could contribute to the development of diseases such as cancer, metabolic disorders, and neurodevelopmental conditions, among others. In addition, they may have effects on other pathologies that have not yet been studied, such as food allergy, where they could act modifying the digestibility of food allergens, increasing intestinal permeability, promoting an intestinal inflammatory environment or causing intestinal dysbiosis, which could promote food allergen sensitization. However, given the limited information on the presence of MP and especially NP in food, further research is needed to estimate whether they could amplify the risk of allergic sensitization to food proteins and to elucidate the risk to human health.