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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Plastic pollution has been found all over the world and has made its way into the food chain and into our bodies. Photo: Shutterstock

Published: 7:45pm, 12 Feb 2025

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.

Matthew Campen from the University of New Mexico led the study. Photo: University of New Mexico

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.

They found that the average concentration of micro- and nanoplastics in the kidneys was similarly high in 2016 and 2024.

However, significantly higher values were found in the liver and brain samples in 2024. In the liver, the mean concentration rose from 141.9 micrograms to 465.3 micrograms per gram of tissue, and in the brain, from 3,420 micrograms to 4,763 micrograms per gram of tissue.

Polythene, which is used for plastic bottles and films, was the most common type of plastic found in the analysis of plastic microparticles in the human body. Photo: Shutterstock