Microplastics are everywhere. And this pollution is now so present on the planet that human exposure is inevitable, according to scientists. In new study published in the journal Science of the Total Environmentthey discovered – with surprise – microplastics in the lungs of living people, for the first time. “Microplastics have already been found in autopsy samples from human cadavers – this is the first robust study to show microplastics in the lungs of living people“said Laura Sadofsky, lead author of the study.
Already in March 2022, researchers from the University of Amsterdam had found traces of microplastics in human blood. While the real impact on health is still unknown, scientists are nevertheless concerned, as microplastics are known to damage human cells and air pollution particles cause millions of premature deaths per year.
This time, researchers from the University of Hull and Hull York Medical School took lung tissue from patients who were due for medical procedures. On 13 samples, eleven of them showed the presence of microplastics, 39 in total. And among the most common particles were the polyprene, used in plastic packaging, food containers and pipes, and PET, found in bottles. Particle size reached 0.003 millimeters and microplastic levels were higher in men than in women.
Results that surprise
“We did not expect to find the greatest number of particles in the lower regions of the lungs, or particles of the size we foundalso indicated Laura Sadofsky. This is surprising as the airways are smaller in the lower parts of the lungs and we would have expected particles of these sizes to be filtered out or trapped before reaching this depth..”
“This data is an important advance in the field of air pollution, microplastics and human health“, she finished. Air pollution today concerns 99% of the world’s inhabitants and this study could pave the way to finally better understand the effects of this pollution on health.
Source :
- Detection of microplastics in human lung tissue using μFTIR spectroscopy, Science of the Total Environment2022
- Scientists discover microplastics in deepest section of the lungsUniversity of Hull, 6 April 2022
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