Autopsy shows microplastics in all major human organs

Monday, August 17, 2020 (HealthDay News)-Microscopic plastic pieces likely stayed in all major filtration organs in the body, a new lab study suggests.

The researchers found evidence of plastic contamination in tissue samples taken from lungs, liver, spleen, and kidneys of donated human corpses.

“We are pleased to announce that Senior Research Fellow Rolf Halden, who is the director of the Center for Environmental Health Engineering and Biodesign at Arizona State University (ASU), said:

It has long been a concern that chemicals in plastics can have a wide range of health effects, ranging from diabetes and obesity to sexual dysfunction and infertility.

However, the presence of these microscopic particles in major organs could also act as a carcinogenic stimulant, similar to asbestos, Halden explained.

“Chemistry doesn’t necessarily harm us, sometimes it’s the shape of our bodies and the presence of foreign bodies,” Halden said. “We know that inhalation of asbestos can cause inflammation, which can be followed by cancer.”

Dianna Cohen, CEO of the non-profit Plastics Pollution Union, has shown in previous studies that she takes an average of 5 grams of credit-card equivalent plastic each week.

“It’s encouraging to see quality quantitative research done on humans to assess the cumulative deleterious effects of these microplastics,” Cohen said of a new study. .. “On the other hand, it’s so depressing to see that scientific advisers in our field have long warned us about plastic consumption.”

For this study, Halden and his colleagues built 47 brain and body banks from donors as part of a study of conditions like Alzheimer’s disease, provided by the ASU Banner Neurodegenerative Diseases Research Center for 47 organizations. Analyzed the sample.

Researchers were particularly looking for the presence of particles that are small enough to move from the digestive system into the bloodstream, “circulating along with the bloodstream and getting caught in filtration organs such as the lungs, kidneys, and liver. “Halden explained.

The team developed a procedure for extracting microplastics from tissue samples and analyzed them using a technique called spectroscopy.

Microplastic is a piece of plastic that is less than 5 mm in diameter, or less than about 0.2 inches, and is barely visible to the human eye. Researchers were also looking for nanoplastic particles with a diameter of 1 micron or 0.001 mm. The diameter of human hair is about 50 microns.

The results of the survey were to be announced on Monday at the virtual annual meeting of the American Chemical Society. Such studies are considered preliminary until published in a peer-reviewed journal.

The research team used the work to create an online calculator that would help other scientists convert information about the number of plastic particles into standard units of mass and surface area.

The calculator “maps human pollution,” Halden said. “I want to create an exposure map of the human body.”

Halden and Cohen said that those who want to avoid ingesting plastic are unlucky given all the plastics in the environment that are constantly shattered into microscopic particles.

“It is impossible to protect yourself completely from the ingestion of plastic,” Cohen said. “Microplastics are measured in tap water, bottled water, and the air we breathe.”

Food also contains microplastic particles. Researchers from the University of Exeter in the UK and the University of Queensland in Australia reported last week on five different samples of seafood: oysters, shrimp, squid, crabs and sardines, according to a report published on August 12 in the journal. I found a plastic. Environmental science and technology..

“But just thinking it’s reusable rather than disposable can certainly reduce exposure,” Cohen continued. This includes buying as much unwrapped food as possible, and using water bottles and other tableware made of pottery, metal, or other non-plastic materials.

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