POLLUTION – On average, humans are made up of 65% water… and 1% plastic? Indeed, the studies multiply to demonstrate that microplastics interfere in our body. A few weeks ago, researchers found traces of it in the human blood. Last July, it was in the lung tissue that microplastic had been flushed out during autopsies.
This time, the researchers went deep into the lungs, and once again saw pieces of microplastics. This is what explains in a press release dated April 6Laura Sadofsky, of Hull York Medical School, as the study was accepted for publication in the journal Science of the Total Environment.
In addition, the researcher affirms that “if these particles have already been found in autopsy samples of human corpses, this is the first study to demonstrate their presence in the lungs of living people”.
Ubiquitous microplastics
This is not the first time that plastic has been found in human lungs. As early as 1998, an American study on patients with lung cancer revealed the presence of plastic and plant fibers (such as cotton).
The researcher therefore worked again on this part of the human body. She analyzed samples of tissue taken from 13 patients undergoing lung surgery and found microplastics in 11 of them. This finding is surprising in a way, because “the lung airways are very narrow, so nobody thought these particles could get that deep, but they clearly succeeded,” says Laura Sadofsky.
The cause? The atmospheric pollution
In total, the study revealed a wide diversity of microplastics. No less than 39 kinds of particles were found, ranging from polypropylene, used in plastic packaging and pipes, to PET, used in bottles.
This discovery takes place while the pollution atmospheric now concerns 99% of the inhabitants of the globe, and that microplastics present in suspension in the air have been found all over the world. Their concentration has also been shown to increase in areas with high population and human activity, especially indoors.
This study can then make it possible to start the way to understand precisely the effects on health of this form of pollution. The researchers are nevertheless worried, having been able to observe in the laboratory that microplastics damage human cells. Additionally, air pollution particles are already known to enter the body and cause millions of deaths each year.
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