Microplastic Found In Human Blood First Ever

 

Has plastic conquered us? Aside from plastic pollution on land, water, and in air and food as some reports said, now plastic have entered our blood and would make also their way into our human organs as scientists or researchers have recently found.

They recently found for the first time ever tiny or microplastics on blood samples taken from healthy individual volunteers in almost 80% of them. The plastics they found are PET(Polyethylene Terephthalate) plastics which is use for plastic bottles which is 50 %,polystyrene like plastic utensils, cups, etc which is 36 %; and polyethylene like grocery plastic bag which is 23 %.

“A Dutch study published in the Environment International journal on Thursday examined blood samples from 22 anonymous, healthy volunteers and found microplastics in nearly 80 percent of them.

Half of the blood samples showed traces of PET plastic, widely used to make drink bottles, while more than a third had polystyrene, used for disposable food containers and many other products.”

"This is the first time we have actually been able to detect and quantify" such microplastics in human blood, said Dick Vethaak, an ecotoxicologist at Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam.

"This is proof that we have plastics in our body—and we shouldn't," he told AFP, calling for further research to investigate how it could be impacting health.

"Where is it going in your body? Can it be eliminated? Excreted? Or is it retained in certain organs, accumulating maybe, or is it even able to pass the blood-brain barrier?"(PHYS)

The study said that these plastics which they have discovered could come from sources like the food and water we take into our bodies; the air we breathe in; from the products like toothpaste, lip glosses, and from tattoo ink.

Scientists also said that these microplastics or plastics could enter our organ via our bloodstream