CHICAGO (WLS) — A significant initiative has been launched to assess the presence of microplastics in Chicago’s drinking water, echoing a growing concern nationwide.

In a concerted effort, political leaders, environmental advocates, and state governors, including Illinois Governor JB Pritzker, are urging the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to implement a comprehensive water monitoring system. This initiative aims to quantify the prevalence of microplastics in our water supply.

Experts have informed the ABC7 I-Team that the levels of these microplastics in drinking water remain a mystery, primarily due to the absence of a structured measurement program at both federal and local levels. This lack of data is alarming, as scientists report a significant increase in microplastics within our environment.

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These minuscule plastic particles and fibers are often invisible to the naked eye due to their tiny size.

Their small stature allows them to be easily ingested through drinking water, food, or even from the air. According to Tim Hoellein, a biologist and microplastics researcher at Loyola, these particles are indeed present in all these mediums.

The I-Team has been following the rise of microplastics and human exposure to them for nearly a decade.

Hoellien says microplastics in the environment have been increasing exponentially since the mid-1900s.

“We were able to go to the Field Museum and pick out some fish specimens that had been collected from local rivers over the past 100 years, and what we found was there was no microplastic in their guts before, about the 1950s,” Hoellien said. “After that we saw the microplastic and it increased in an accelerating fashion.”

But while scientific researchers are witnessing the widespread proliferation of microplastics in the environment, there is still no Illinois or federal surveillance program to track levels in drinking water. The advocacy group Food and Water Watch sent a petition signed by seven governors from across the U.S., including Illinois, urging the Environmental Protection Agency to add microplastics to pollution monitoring rules under the Safe Drinking Water Act.

“We’re seeing increasing amounts of micro plastics and other chemical contaminants in our drinking water, in our Great Lakes, and it’s of substantial concern. Unfortunately, right now, we don’t have a uniform methodology or standards that all the states are using, or even the federal government is using,” said Andrea Densham, the senior policy advisor with Alliance for the Great Lakes.

Densham says creating a program to measure microplastic levels in the water we drink is vital to public health.

“We’re finding in human brains, lungs and in the bloodstream that that is really concerning, and it’s concerning for young people and infants as well as everyday folks and for the elderly. I mean, I think what we have is an emerging crisis,” she said.

There is growing scientific evidence that ingesting plastics may be linked to health problems.

Hoellien says they can mimic hormones, and some may even cause cancer, but he says surveillance is a tall order because the plastic particles are so complex.

“So, coming up with one way to measure it and one statement about its physiological impacts, it’s much harder for such a large group of materials,” he explained.

California is the only state to implement its own microplastics monitoring program, something the experts say Illinois could draw on to create its own program.