In recent years, news about microplastic pollution has been in the news, but it is the first time that microplastic pollution has been found deep in the lungs of a living person.On April 6, the British “Guardian” reported the appalling discovery. Samples for the study were taken from lung tissue from 13 patients who underwent surgery, 11 of which were found to have microplastics. The most common pellets are polypropylene (PP), which is used in plastic packaging and straws, and polyethylene terephthalate (PET), which is used in making bottles.
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“We didn’t expect to find the highest number of particles in the area below the lungs. This was surprising because the airways below the lungs are narrower and we would have expected such small particles to be filtered out before they could get this deep. Or be adsorbed,” said Laura Sadofsky, corresponding author of the paper and from Hull York Medical College, UK.
This shows that microplastics not only invade the human body through water, food, etc., but now even breathing is not immune. Since the respiratory system provides a “shortcut” for microplastics, the lungs have become one of the main sites for microplastic accumulation.
pervasive
Today, those tiny, ultra-low-density microplastics and nanoparticles are causing the most worrisome respiratory health concerns because these particles are most likely to deposit in the lungs.
The Sadofsky-led study, published in Science of the Total Environment, analyzed particles as small as 0.003 millimeters and used spectroscopy to identify the type of plastic. Researchers identified 12 polymer types in 11 lung tissue samples, of which three types were the most abundant, PP accounted for 23%, PET accounted for 18%, and resin (Resin) accounted for 15%.
By sampling and analyzing the air, researchers found that microplastics always exist in the air, especially in the highest concentration indoors. Also, microplastics are a sturdy material that cannot be broken down in the lungs, and as a person breathes, microplastics can accumulate in the lungs.
The horror of microplastics is now ubiquitous and can even be transferred from mother to fetus. Previously, in a rat study led by Rutgers University professor Phoebe Stapleton, “plastic nanoparticles were found everywhere – in maternal tissue, placenta and fetal tissue. We found in the heart, brain, lung, liver of the fetus. They are found in both kidneys.”
Image of microplastics identified from human lung tissue samples. (A=PET, B=PUR, C=Resin, D=PAN, E=PS, F=PP)
A very worrying issue is that researchers have also found microplastic particles in the placenta of pregnant women for the first time.
The paper, published in Environment International, noted that the particles were found in the placentas of four healthy women with normal pregnancies, and about a dozen microplastics were found. However, only about 4 percent of each placenta was analyzed, suggesting that the actual total amount of microplastics is much higher. Most of these microplastics are 0.01 millimeters in size, so small that they can “float” in the blood.
The researchers speculated that the particles may have crossed the placenta into the baby’s body, but they were unable to assess this. They believe the potential effects of microplastics on the fetus include hindering fetal growth.
Another study, published in Environment International in March, confirmed that human blood has also been contaminated with microplastics. “For the first time, we have detected microplastic particles in human blood, which may be transported throughout the body by blood,” said Dick Vethaak, a professor at Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam in the Netherlands.
The researchers analyzed blood samples from 22 healthy donors and found plastic particles in 17 samples. Half of the samples contained PET plastic; while one-third contained polystyrene (PS), which is used to package food and other products; and one-quarter contained polyethylene (PE), the main source of plastic bags. Material.
“Whether microplastic particles are transported to certain organs, such as through the blood-brain barrier? Does a certain level of microplastic deposited in the body cause disease? These are urgently needed further research to find answers,” Vethaak said.
Microplastics pollute the entire planet
In 2018, a large amount of microplastics was found in the Mariana Trench, the deepest part of the earth; in 2020, microplastic pollution was found near the summit of Mount Everest, the highest mountain on the earth. Clearly, microplastics have polluted the entire planet.
Microplastics not only exist in the air, but can also take a “travel” through the wind. Previously, researchers found microplastic pollution in remote areas of the Swiss Alps and the French Pyrenees. They believe that wind has the ability to spread microplastic particles over great distances.
Also, concentrations of microplastics are higher in densely populated and active areas.
Previously, British scientists assessed four cities and found that all cities had a lot of microplastic pollution in the air. Scientists believe that any city in the world has been polluted by microplastics, because food packaging, bottles and other sources of microplastics can be found everywhere.
“Reducing, reusing and recycling larger plastic waste is important because when it is thrown into the environment, it breaks down into microplastics,” said Imogen Napper, an expert at the University of Plymouth in the UK.
In addition to these sources of microplastics, there is another source that is easily overlooked—clothing.
Napper said many microplastics are shed from clothing made from synthetic fabrics. Her previous research found that washing machines release roughly 700,000 tiny plastic fibers per wash, and that plastic bags that claimed to be biodegradable remained intact after three years in the natural environment.
Napper called for the textile industry to focus on better fabrics and use natural fibers such as cotton as much as possible.
will cause damage to the human body
It has been less than 200 years since the invention of plastic, but it takes hundreds or thousands of years for plastic to degrade naturally, but the most terrifying thing is not the so-called environmental damage and waste of resources, but these extremely tiny plastic particles. They are now able to enter our bodies in large quantities, posing a serious threat to human health.
Millions of tons of plastic are lost to the environment every year. These plastics can contain toxic additives and carry harmful microorganisms. “In the future, we can study to identify the most polluting foods and avoid them, but the ultimate solution is to stop the loss of plastic waste,” said Evangelos Danopoulos of Hull York Medical School, UK, “because once plastic enters the environment, we Really helpless.”
His research, published in the Journal of Hazardous Materials, argues that cell death, allergic reactions and cell wall damage are caused by people ingesting a certain amount of microplastics. Also, irregularly shaped microplastics are more likely to cause cell death than spherical microplastics. But the impact on human health is uncertain, because it is unknown how long microplastics stay in the body before being expelled.
“We’re exposed to these particles every day, we’re eating them, we’re inhaling them,” Danopoulos said. “There’s really no way to protect ourselves right now, and we should be concerned.”
Previous research by Vethaak has shown that infant feces contain 10 times the amount of microplastics than adults, and that infants fed plastic bottles swallow millions of microplastic particles every day. “Infants and young children are more susceptible to chemicals and particulate matter, which worries me.”
The hidden dangers of microplastics are not only these. A study published in PNAS found that microplastics stick to the outer membranes of the body’s red blood cells and stretch them, greatly reducing their mechanical stability and thus affecting the normal function of red blood cells, which reduces their ability to transport oxygen. .
These findings are a wake-up call for humanity, but it’s not a problem that can be solved anytime soon.
Reference link:
https：//doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2022.154907
https：//doi.org/10.1016/j.jhazmat.2021.127861
https：//doi.org/10.1016/j.envint.2020.106274
https：//doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2104610118
https：//www.theguardian.com/environment/2022/apr/06/microplastics-found-deep-in-lungs-of-living-people-for-first-time