NEWS

In a recent study, Micro-plastics was discovered from Human Blood

WHAT ARE MICROPLASTICS?

• Tiny bits of various types of plastic found in the environment
• Name is used to differentiate them from “macroplastics” such as bottles and bags made of plastic
• No universal agreement on the size that fits this bill — the U.S. NOAA (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration) and the European Chemical Agency define microplastic as less than 5mm in length
• For the purposes of this study, since the authors were interested in measuring the quantities of plastic that can cross the membranes and diffuse into the body via the blood stream, the authors have an upper limit on the size of the particles as 0.0007 millimetre

DOES THE PRESENCE OF MICROPLASTICS IN BLOOD HAVE HEALTH IMPACTS

• It is not yet clear if these microplastics can cross over from the blood stream to deposit in organs and cause diseases
• Human placenta has shown to be permeable to tiny particles of polystyrene ( 50, 80 and 24 nanometre beads)
• Experiments on rats where its lungs were exposed to polystryrene spheres (20 nanometre) led to translocation of the nanoparticles to the placental and foetal tissue
• Oral administration of microplastics in rats led to accumulation of these in the liver, kidney and gut