Plastic Pollution is Entering the Ecosystem at an Alarming Rate
Since the widespread introduction of synthetic polymers back in the 1930s, the world has adopted plastics as a mainstream raw material to make nearly everything – from beverage and food containers, carpets, paint and wall coverings, fabrics and upholstery, personal care products, vehicle tires, and to injection molded parts for products ranging from smartphones to automobiles.
A major environmental downside is that plastics are, well, “plastic” – in the original sense of the word meaning transformable.
Plastics can break down relatively easily (in the sun, for example), shed microparticles (when you clean synthetic clothes in the washer), break into smaller pieces (such as nylon line for string trimmers used in landscaping), or simply blow away in the wind as discarded plastic bag litter.
Even the little plastic pellets (called ‘nurdles’ in the industry) pose a risk, given that many millions of nurdles have been lost at sea when containers transporting them on cargo ships have fallen overboard.
Collectively, all these activities – some of which are repeated hundreds of thousands of times each day around the world – have led to a worldwide plastics pollution crisis.
With the Widespread Ingestion of Plastic by Wildlife, It Was Only a Matter of Time Before Humans Absorb Plastic Particles As Well.
You’ve likely seen heart-wrenching images of distressed sea turtles caught in beer rings or birds dying from eating discarded plastic waste.
That’s only part of the story.
For several years now, researchers have documented findings that microplastics have entered the food chain, with wild species such as fish and birds carrying measurable quantities of foreign plastic materials in their tissues.
Given that humans are one of the species at the top of the food chain, it’s not surprising that researchers have recently published evidence that we, too, are accumulating microplastic particles in our bodies at an alarming rate.
Worse yet, microplastics are now migrating past the vaunted blood/brain barrier to settle directly inside human brains.
How Much Plastic is Accumulating in Human Brains?
In a pre-print paper, researchers at the University of New Mexico and Oklahoma University used Pyrolysis Gas Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry methods to quantify the amount of micro- and nanoplastics (MNPs) found in human kidneys, livers, and brains.
The researchers had two worrying findings:
First, micro- and nano-plastics are accumulating at greater concentrations – up to 30 times higher — in human brains compared to the liver or kidneys. Among the different types of plastics discovered, polyethylene polymers were the predominant type of plastic, with relatively higher concentrations of this type of polymer found in human brains as well.
Second, the rate of accumulation has increased over time, with the amount of plastics absorbed into human organs increasing by about 50% over the period from 2016 to 2024.
What is the Risk to Our Health from Accumulating Plastic Deposits in the Brain?
According to Philip Demokritou, the founding director of Harvard University’s Environmental Health Nanoscience Laboratory and the Center for Nanotechnology and Nanotoxicology at the School of Public Health, “ingestion is the primary route of (plastics) exposure, and we are consuming about 5 grams of micro- (and) nano-plastics per week; that’s the equivalent of a credit card.”
What is the health risk of consuming 5 grams of plastic a week, especially if it is accumulating at a faster rate in the brain compared to the kidneys or the liver?
Most scientists would agree it’s a very concerning development but simply don’t have a good answer right now about how bad this is.
Instead, we do have theories about various aspects of plastic accumulation.
For example, one theory supposes the reason for the relatively higher plastic accumulation in the brain is that the kidneys and liver are designed to expel foreign and toxic materials, while the brain is less so equipped.
Another question that scientists are struggling to explain is how micro- and nano-plastics are able to cross the human blood-brain barrier in the first place.
One potentially useful clue is that this phenomenon is also occurring in other species, such as fish, which are collecting plastic pollution in their brains as well.
What Can Be Done to Reduce the Risk of Plastic Absorption in the Body?
According to a paper recently published in Science, the amount of plastic accumulating in our bodies could double by 2040.
Something needs to be done now to reduce the risk.
However, there is only limited political consensus around the world to tackle the plastics problems at a global scale, as evidenced by the failure of the fifth UN Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee (INC-5) meeting held in Busan, South Korea to agree to a legally binding global treaty to curb plastic pollution. (The delegates kicked the can down the road – to a future set of negotiations, dubbed INC 5.2)
We urgently need a breakthrough to replace conventional plastics, ideally substituting a new material that is as useful and versatile as plastic but also able to naturally decompose into harmless compounds that don’t accumulate in human or animal tissue.
In the meantime, researchers have some suggestions for reducing the amount of plastic you ingest on a day-to-day basis:
- Avoid serving food in single-use plastic containers. Never reuse them.
- Avoid liquid-resistant paper and foil food wrappers (they have a plastic film coating)
- Avoid storing foods in plastic containers, and never use plastic containers or plastic wraps in the microwave.
- Install a microfilter in your washer to prevent microplastics found in clothing from entering the wastewater system.
- Avoid drinking liquids from plastic bottles. Drink water filtered by a certified filtering system.
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