Over the last few years, numerous studies, including those in Nature Communications and Environmental International, have found nanoplastics and microplastics throughout the human body, including the blood, bones, and brain. Unsurprisingly, these findings sparked serious concern about the possible impact on human health.
But as these papers began making headlines, some researchers questioned the findings and the approach. One scientist told The Guardian these concerns amount to a “bombshell.”
Stephanie Wright, an associate professor at Imperial College London, discussed in The Guardian how we don’t have a strong grasp of the accuracy of these microplastic studies. It’s possible that they are overestimating the amount of plastic in our bodies.
Read More: Our Brains Are Soaking Up Microplastics More Than Other Organs
Growing Doubts Over Microplastics
There are many reasons to be doubtful about papers that have found plastics in the human body, according to experts such as Leon Barron, professor of Analytical & Environmental Sciences at Imperial College London.
He points to a Nature Medicine study that found microplastics in the human brain. That particular paper suggested that the brain had higher concentrations of microplastics than other parts of the body, such as the kidneys or liver.
“Given the size of particles that they were reporting in that paper, it didn’t seem believable that it would get into the brain,” Barron told Discover.
Another reason is that picking out tiny plastic fragments that may or may not be present in the human body is tricky. Plastics can give off similar signals to naturally occurring fatty tissues, said Barron. There is also the ever-present issue of sample contamination during testing.
“It is a very complex ask to measure something that’s made of carbon and hydrogen, predominantly in something that’s made of carbon and hydrogen,” Kevin Thomas, director of the Queensland Alliance for Environmental Health Sciences (QAEHS) at The University of Queensland, told Discover.
All told, how much we really know about the presence of plastics in the body remains unclear, according to a report in Nature. In a recent Environment and Health paper, an international team of scientists — including Wright, Barron, and Thomas — has called for standardised methods for studying and identifying plastics in the body to help clear up these uncertainties. That, ideally, would take a forensic approach applying multiple methods to research to cross-check results, they said.
“Some of the studies that have been published may prove to be very important, but we just don’t quite know yet,” Thomas said. By utilizing multiple methodologies, they hope to improve confidence in the study results.
Experts aren’t dismissing concerns about plastics accumulating in our bodies. Rather, they state that there is absolutely no doubt that understanding and studying the possible human health impacts of microplastics is essential.
“We know that microplastic is in our environment; there’s a high chance it is in our body,” Wright added. “We just don’t really understand how much is in our body, and therefore it makes it very difficult linking that to any kind of health outcome.”
Plastics and the Chemicals They Contain
According to the UN, plastics contain a cocktail of potentially harmful chemicals and compounds. Thus far, more than 4,000 chemicals used in plastics are considered “highly hazardous” to humans and the environment, according to Beyond Plastics.
An article from Stanford Medicine discusses how some studies have suggested links to numerous health problems in people and animals, such as heart disease, cancer, and reproductive problems. It’s also known that harmful bacteria and pathogens can colonize plastics, according to the University of Exeter.
“I need to make that very, very clear. It is not that plastics are not a risk to us. There are several chemicals within plastics that are harmful to human health,” Barron told Discover, adding that it is all the more reason the science investigating their presence and impact must be sound. “From an environmental health and human risk assessment approach, it is important to study it.”
This article is not offering medical advice and should be used for informational purposes only.
Read More: Plastic-Eating Microbes Could Help Tackle Our Environmental Mess
Article Sources
Our writers at Discovermagazine.com use peer-reviewed studies and high-quality sources for our articles, and our editors review for scientific accuracy and editorial standards. Review the sources used below for this article: