In recent years, news about microplastic pollution has been commonplace, but it is the first time that microplastic contamination has been found deep in the lungs of a living person. on April 6, the British newspaper The Guardian reported the horrifying discovery. Samples for this study were taken from the lung tissue of 13 patients who underwent surgery, and microplastics were found in 11 of these cases. The most common pellets are polypropylene (PP) for plastic packaging and straws, and polyethylene terephthalate (PET) for making bottles.
"We didn't expect to find the greatest number of particles in the lower region of the lungs. This is so surprising because the airways below the lungs are much narrower and we would have expected such small particles to be filtered out or trapped before they got that deep." Laura Sadofsky of Hull York Medical School in the United Kingdom, corresponding author of the paper, said.
This suggests that microplastics are not only invading the body through water, food, etc., but now even breathing is not spared. Since the respiratory system provides a "shortcut" for microplastics, the lungs have become one of the major sites of microplastic accumulation.
Today, microplastics and nanoparticles that are tiny in size and ultra-low density are brewing as the most worrisome respiratory health problem because these particles are most likely to be deposited in the lungs.
The study, led by Sadofsky and published in Science of the Total Environment, analyzed particles as small as 0.003 mm and used spectroscopy to identify the type of plastic. The researchers identified 12 polymer types in 11 lung tissue samples, with three types having the highest content, PP at 23%, PET at 18% and resin (Resin) at 15%.
Researchers have found that microplastics are always present in the air, especially in the highest concentrations indoors, by sampling and analyzing the air. Moreover, microplastics are a strong material that cannot be broken down in the lungs and may pile up in the lungs as a person breathes.
The horror of microplastics is that they are pervasive and can even be transferred to the fetus through the mother. Previously, in a rat study led by Rutgers University professor Phoebe Stapleton, "plastic nanoparticles were found everywhere - in maternal tissue, placenta and fetal tissue. We found them in the fetal heart, brain, lungs, liver and kidneys."
A very worrying issue is that for the first time, researchers have also found microplastic particles in the placentas of pregnant women.
The paper, published in Environment International, states that the particles were found in the placentas of four healthy women with normal pregnancies, and that roughly a dozen microplastics were found. However, only about 4% of each placenta was analyzed, suggesting that the actual total amount of microplastics is much higher. The size of these microplastics is mostly 0.01 mm, and their small size allows them to "float" in the bloodstream.
The researchers speculate that the particles may have entered the baby's body through the placenta, but they were unable to assess this. They believe that the potential effects of microplastics on the fetus include impeding fetal growth.
Another study published in Environment International in March of this year confirmed that human blood has also been contaminated with microplastics. "For the first time, we have detected microplastic particles in human blood that may be transported throughout the body by the blood," said Dick Vethaak, a professor at the Free University of Amsterdam in the Netherlands.
In a new study published March 25 in Environment International (IF=9.621), the top journal in environmental science, a team of researchers led by the Free University of Amsterdam in the Netherlands found microplastics in the blood of human volunteers for the first time, further raising concerns about their long-term effects on human health.
In this new study, researchers recruited 22 healthy volunteers to obtain whole blood samples via venipuncture.
The microplastic concentrations reported in this study involve potential exposure routes including air, water and food, as well as personal care products, dental polymers, polymer implant fragments, polymer drug delivery nanoparticles and tattoo ink residues that may be ingested.
Whether microplastics are present in the plasma or carried by specific cell types, and the extent to which these cells are involved in transferring microplastics across the mucosa into the blood, remains to be determined, the researchers said.
Can cause damage to the human body
Plastic has been invented less than 200 years ago, but it takes hundreds of years for plastic to degrade naturally, but the most horrible thing is not the so-called environmental damage and waste of resources, but these extremely small plastic particles.
They are now able to enter our bodies in a big way and pose a serious threat to human health.
The hidden dangers of microplastics are not only these. A study published in PNAS found that microplastics adhere to the outer membranes of the body's red blood cells and stretch them, greatly reducing their mechanical stability and thus affecting the normal function of red blood cells, which can diminish their ability to deliver oxygen.
These findings are a wake-up call for humanity, but it's not a problem that will be solved anytime soon.
