In World-Historic First, Microplastics Detected In Human Blood By Kenny Stancil for Natural Blaze
A team of toxicologists found microplastics in nearly 80% of the healthy adult blood samples it analyzed, marking the first time that tiny polymer fragments—measuring less than 5mm in size—have been detected in human blood, The Guardian reportedThursday.
Using techniques that allowed them to detect particles as small as 0.0007mm, the scientists, whose research was published in the peer-reviewed journal Environment International, examined blood samples provided by 22 anonymous donors in good health and discovered microplastics in 17 of them.
According to The Guardian, “Half the samples contained PET plastic, which is commonly used in drinks bottles, while a third contained polystyrene, used for packaging food and other products. A quarter of the blood samples contained polyethylene, from which plastic carrier bags are made.”
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“Our study is the first indication that we have polymer particles in our blood—it’s a breakthrough result,” Dick Vethaak, an ecotoxicologist at Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam in the Netherlands and expert on the health risks posed by microplastics, told the British newspaper. “But we have to extend the research and increase the sample sizes, the number of polymers assessed, etc.,” he said, noting that additional studies are in progress.
“It is certainly reasonable to be concerned,” Vethaak continued. “The particles are there and are transported throughout the body.”
The Guardian reported that as they travel through the body, microplastics “may lodge in organs,” though “the impact on health is as yet unknown.” Nevertheless, “researchers are concerned as microplastics cause damage to human cells in the laboratory and air pollution particles are already known to enter the body and cause millions of early deaths a year.”
Global plastic pollution—recently characterized as a life-threatening crisis by the Environmental Investigation Agency, a United Kingdom-based nonprofit—is so pervasive that minuscule polymer particles now contaminate every corner of planet Earth, from the tallest mountain peaks to the deepest parts of the ocean and the most remote islands.
