hankyoreh

Microplastics are being found all across the world, even within the human body. (Getty Images Bank)

Microplastics are being discovered everywhere — from the North and South Poles to the deep ocean floor. They were even found in the lungs and blood of living humans recently. Research indicates that we each consume 5 grams of microplastics a week through our gastrointestinal tract.

A team of researchers at Hull York Medical School in the UK announced Thursday that it had discovered microplastics in live human lungs in the most robust study of its kind. The team’s study will be published in the scientific journal Science of The Total Environment.

The team used samples of healthy lung tissue obtained during lung transplant surgeries for lung cancer or pulmonary emphysema patients for its research. Researchers analyzed particles 0.003 millimeters in size obtained from their samples, identifying different types of plastic by using spectroscopes. An analysis of tissue samples obtained from 13 patients showed 11 samples to have microplastics in their lungs.

Microplastics are defined as plastic particles smaller in size than 5 millimeters. The 11 samples that contained microplastics yielded 1.42 pieces of microplastic per 1 gram of tissue on average.

Microplastics were found in the human body in a recent study. (from Science of The Total Environment 831: 20 July 2022, 154907)

Of the microplastics identified, 23% were polypropylene (PP) used for packaging and piping, 18% were polyethylene terephthalate (PET) frequently used to make water bottles, and 15% were resin. While the upper part of the lung and the middle part of the organ yielded 0.80 and 0.41 pieces of microplastics per 1 gram of tissue, respectively, the highest number of microplastics was found in the lower part of the lung, which yielded 3.12 pieces of microplastics per 1 gram of tissue.

“We did not expect to find the highest number of particles in the lower regions of the lungs, or particles of the sizes we found. It is surprising as the airways are smaller in the lower parts of the lungs and we would have expected particles of these sizes to be filtered out or trapped before getting this deep,” said Laura Sadofsky of Hull York Medical School, a senior author of the study.

Microplastics were also detected in the lung samples of 13 out of 20 people autopsied in Brazil last year.

Microplastics have even been found in human blood. (Getty Images Bank)

Microplastics were detected in human blood for the first time last month by a research team from Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, in the Netherlands. Their analysis found microplastics in the blood of 17 of 22 adult blood donors. Their paper was published in the scholarly journal Environment International.

“The [microplastic] particles are [in the blood] and are transported throughout the body,” Dick Vethaak, a professor at Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, told the Guardian.

Paraphrasing Vethaak, the Guardian said that “previous work had shown that microplastics were 10 times higher in the faeces of babies compared with adults and that babies fed with plastic bottles are swallowing millions of microplastic particles a day.”

Microplastics are being absorbed via the gastrointestinal tract as well. (Getty Images Bank)

According to researchers from the Medical University of Vienna, an average of 5g of plastic particles enter each person’s gastrointestinal tract every week. That’s about the weight of a credit card.

“Whether ingested micro- and nanoplastics pose a health risk is being investigated in numerous studies but is largely unknown to date,” the researchers explained.

In a lab experiment performed by researchers at the Medical University of Vienna, microplastics and nanoplastics ingested through the gastrointestinal tract were found to change the formation of microbiomes inside the intestine in ways that affect the incidence of metabolic diseases including diabetes, obesity and chronic liver disease.

The research team’s review of the current state of research was published in the scientific journal Exposure and Health.

Microplastics, which measure 0.001-5 millimeters, are partially visible to the eye, unlike nanoplastics, which measure less than 0.0001 millimeters. Plastic particles enter the human body through the consumption of marine life and sea salt.

“According to a study, anyone who drinks the recommended 1.5 to two liters of water a day from plastic bottles ingests around 90,000 plastic particles per year in this way alone. However, those who choose tap water can [. . .] reduce the amount ingested to 40,000 plastic particles,” the researchers said.

By Lee Keun-young, staff reporter

Please direct questions or comments to [english@hani.co.kr]