Experts have discovered that the presence of very small plastic particles in human blood can increase the risk of heart diseases.
Now the first data of their kind show a link between these microplastics and human health. A study of more than 200 people undergoing surgery found that nearly 60% had microplastics or even smaller nanoplastics in a main artery. Those who did were 4.5 times more likely to experience a heart attack, a stroke or death in the approximately 34 months after the surgery than were those whose arteries were plastic-free.
“This is a landmark trial,” says Robert Brook, a physician-scientist at Wayne State University in Detroit, Michigan, who studies the environmental effects on cardiovascular health and was not involved with the study. “This will be the launching pad for further studies across the world to corroborate, extend and delve into the degree of the risk that micro- and nanoplastics pose.” Scientists have found microplastics just about everywhere they’ve looked: in oceans; in shellfish; in breast milk; in drinking water; wafting in the air; and falling with rain.
Such contaminants are not only ubiquitous but also long-lasting, often requiring centuries to break down. As a result, cells responsible for removing waste products can’t readily degrade them, so microplastics accumulate in organisms. In humans, they have been found in the blood and in organs such as the lungs and placenta. However, just because they accumulate doesn’t mean they cause harm. Scientists have been worried about the health effects of microplastics for around 20 years, but what those effects are has proved difficult to evaluate rigorously, says Philip Landrigan, a paediatrician and epidemiologist at Boston College in Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts. Giuseppe Paolisso, an internal-medicine physician at the University of Campania Luigi Vanvitelli in Caserta, Italy, and his colleagues knew that microplastics are attracted to fat molecules, so they were curious about whether the particles would build up in fatty deposits called plaques that can form on the lining of blood vessels. The team tracked 257 people undergoing a surgical procedure that reduces stroke risk by removing plaque from an artery in the neck.
