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Microplastic levels in our brains are rising fast, study finds
The research also found a big jump in microplastics in people’s livers in an analysis of samples of deceased people taken in 2016 and 2024
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Tiny plastic particles known as microplastics, released by everyday objects like water bottles and plastic bowls, are increasingly accumulating in our bodies, according to a US research team that found significantly more of them in the brain and liver of deceased people examined in 2024 than in samples taken in 2016.
The level of contamination was particularly high in the brain – up to 30 times higher than in the liver or kidneys, according to the group led by Matthew Campen of the University of New Mexico, which published its findings in the journal Nature Medicine.
Other studies have also detected microplastics in the blood, lungs, intestines and placenta. However, conventional microscopy methods usually only detect particles larger than five micrometres. As a result, smaller nanoplastic is unintentionally excluded, the scientists write. A micrometre is a thousandth of a millimetre, while a nanometre is a millionth of a millimetre.
Campen’s team used special infrared and electron microscopy to determine the quantities of plastic more precisely.
The researchers analysed tissue samples from the liver, kidneys and brain of 24 deceased people from 2024 and compared them with samples from 28 dead people from 2016.
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