With microplastics (plastic fragments less than 5 mm or 0.2 inches in size) being discovered in multiple parts of the body – including bones and the brain – the question is not whether these materials are getting inside us, but just how serious the problem is.
A team led by researchers from Capital Medical University in China, publishing their work in the Journal of Hazardous Materials in 2024, found that the arteries pushing blood around our bodies haven’t escaped the slow creep of microplastics into our flesh.
Looking at 17 human arterial samples collected during surgical procedures, the researchers found microplastics present in all of the samples – and at concentrations relatively higher than those for plastics in blood.
