Recent studies show that humans consume about the equivalent of a credit card’s worth of microplastics every week. However, new research found that these pollutants are probably in every human organ, and the most impacted organ may be the human brain.
“So, most our organs seem to be hovering around 300 to 600 micrograms per gram, and that’s probably difficult to understand,” said Matthew Campen, a toxicologist and professor at the University of New Mexico who authored the study. “It’s a small drop in every organ, probably. But when we look at the brain, we see about 10 times that amount we’re talking about. An adult human brain probably has about five to 10 grams of plastic, that’s about the size of a plastic spoon.”
The study reported that 24 brain samples showed an average of .5% of microplastics accounted for their entire weight.
The findings have triggered alarm within the medical community. Researchers said 12 brain samples from dementia patients showed 10 times higher plastic weight than healthy samples. Microplastics have also been linked to cancers, heart attacks and strokes.
Scientists warn that the problem of microplastics in the human body will only get worse as more and more plastics get used in the world. Researchers have also discovered microplastics in pristine national parks and the Arctic, where there is little human contact.
According to researchers, the only way to limit them in the future is to cut people’s use of plastic, particularly single-use plastics.
Furthermore, to limit microplastics from getting into a person’s body, researchers recommend drinking water from a glass instead of a plastic bottle and to prepare food in the microwave without plastic and limit processed foods.
Currently, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) doesn’t have a designation for unsafe levels of microplastics or nano plastics in food. Meanwhile, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is in the process of crafting guidelines to measure them.
The Biden administration is reportedly in discussion with the United Nations on how to reduce global production of plastic. The White House said that it is “critical to getting a handle on this problem.”
