Are microplastics damaging our brains and our health? Experts do not yet know
Study finds a spoon’s worth of plastic in people’s brains but scientists say microplastics’ health effect isn’t yet fully understood
Tiny shards of plastic called microplastics have been detected accumulating in human brains, but there is not yet enough evidence to say whether this is doing us harm, experts have said.
These mostly invisible pieces of plastic have been found everywhere from the top of mountains to the bottom of oceans, in the air we breathe and the food we eat.
They have also been discovered riddled throughout human bodies, inside lungs, hearts, placentas and even crossing the blood-brain barrier.
The effects that microplastics and even smaller nanoplastics have on human health are not yet fully understood, but researchers have been working to find out more in this relatively new field.