By Marcellus Johnson, Paul Mathewson, Ph.D., & Kayla Rinderknecht, MPH, Clean Wisconsin
Summary
Micro– and nanoplastics — small plastic particles — are ubiquitous in the environment. This includes the water we drink, the food we eat and the air we breathe. Due to this exposure, microplastics have been found in numerous human organs and tissues. Little is known about the health effects of microplastics in our body, but there are three primary concerns. First, simply due to their physical presence as a foreign object, microplastics may interfere with normal cell and tissue function. Second, microplastics can have toxic additives like flame retardants or plasticizers that are harmful once introduced into the body. Third, microplastics can absorb toxic pollutants in the environment like PCBs, PFAS and heavy metals, which can cause harm once in the body. Numerous laboratory and animal studies have reported harmful effects of microplastic exposure. These studies, combined with the knowledge that microplastics in our food, air and water are getting into our bodies, create a need to better understand the human health effects of microplastics.
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Key takeaways:
- Most microplastic in the environment is from the breakdown of larger plastic pollution. Another important source to the environment is from wastewater treatment plants (WWTP). Microplastics collected at these plants from the community at large are in the discharged treated water as well as in biosolids spread on farmland.
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- WWTP effluent discharges millions to billions of microplastic particles to the environment every day.
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- Hundreds of millions more particles are estimated to be transported to our rivers, streams, and lakes from biosolids applied to farmland in Wisconsin every year.
- Microplastics in food and drinking water is considered the primary source of exposure to microplastics.
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- Estimates suggest that we eat up to 5 g of microplastics per week, the equivalent of a credit card’s worth of plastic.
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- Bottled water contains over 20 times more microplastic particles than tap water.
- Micro- and nanoplastics have been found throughout the human body, including in the human nervous, respiratory, cardiovascular, and reproductive systems.
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- A recent study found that the typical adult brain had the equivalent of a plastic spoon’s worth of micro- and nanoplastics.
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- Concentrations in human tissues have increased by 50% between 2015 and 2024.
- Recent studies have found a correlation between increased micro- and nanoplastic concentrations in the body and adverse health outcomes, suggesting a need to better understand the role of microplastic exposure as a driver of health conditions.
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- Patients with carotid artery disease have been found to have more micro- and nanoplastics in their arteries than those without disease.
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- People with dementia have been reported to have 10 times more micro- and nanoplastics in their brain than those without dementia.
