This is confirmed by previous studies, where microplastics were found in the lungsin the milk of breastfeeding women and in the blood.
“We already suspected that plastic particles could be absorbed and passed into the bloodstream, and now we know for sure,” says Heather Leslie, who studies microplastics at the University of Maine in the US.
Free path to the blood
The Dutch study used blood samples from 22 participants. Microplastics were found in 17 blood samples.
The type of plastic that had found its way into the blood varied from person to person. And the concentration of the microplastics also varied.
Leslie is not surprised by the results. She mentions, among other things, clothing, cosmetics, electronics, tires and packaging material as products that contain a lot of microplastics.
‘When I started researching microplastics more than 10 years ago, there were about 3,000 types of plastic materials. Now there are more than 9600,’ she says.
We mainly ingest microplastics through the digestive and respiratory tracts, but their exact effect on the human body is not yet fully understood.
However, trials on mice have shown that exposure to microplastics can disrupt gut function, cause inflammation, lower sperm quality and testosterone levels, and negatively affect learning and memory.
But the airways are also in the danger zone, says immunologist Barbro Melgert of the University of Groningen.
‘You can see microplastics as a form of air pollution,’ she says. We know that air pollutants cause stress in the lungs, and the same probably applies to microplastics.’