For scientists responsible for this investigation, published in the journal Nature, these “results should make the alarm sound.”
Small plastic particles can accumulate to higher levels in the human brain than in kidney and liver, with higher concentrations detected in 2024 corpses than in 2016.
Although possible implications for human health remain unfilling, These findings highlight a consequence of the growing global concentrations of environmental plastics, scientists say behind the investigation, published in the .
Scientists stress that Number of nanoparticles and plastic microparticles has increased exponentially in the last 50 years.
Matthew Campen and his health science team at the University of New Mexico in the United States in liver fabric, kidney and brain samples of people who were subjected to autopsies in 2016 and 2024.
According to Campen, plastic concentrations in the brain appear to be higher than in the liver or kidney, and higher than previous reports for placentas and testicles.
“The results should make the alarm sound,” he says in a university statement.
The conclusions of the study
To reach their conclusions, the researchers analyzed a total of 52 brain samples (28 in 2016 and 24 in 2024); They detected these particles in all of them and found similar concentrations in liver tissue and kidney samples obtained in 2016.
However, the Brain samples collected at this time, all from the region of the front cortex, contained substantially higher concentrations of plastic particles than liver tissues and kidneys.
The team also found that 2024 liver and brain samples had significantly higher concentrations of micro and plastic nanoparticles than 2016.
They then compared these results with those of brain tissue samples from previous periods (1997-2013) and found that there were higher concentrations of plastic particles in the latest tissue samples.
Os Scientists have also observed a 10 times higher concentration of micro and nanoplastic particles in 12 brains of individuals with a documented diagnosis of dementia than in those without diagnosis.
However, The authors themselves point out that the results do not establish a causal relationship between the plastic particles and the effects on health.
Also suggest that some variations in brain samples may be due to geographical differencessince the samples were GRANTED IN NEW MEXICO AND IN PLACES ON THE EAST COAST OF THE UNITED STATES.
Therefore, they claim that Long -term studies are needed with larger and more diverse populations to determine microparticle and nanoparticle accumulation trends and their potential health implications.
These results underline the critical need to better understand the roads of exposure, absorption and elimination and potential consequences for the health of plastics in human tissues, in particular in the brain, investigators conclude in their article. Last years, several scientific studies have emerged. over microplastics and the human body.
Last week, for example, it was published in an investigation that indicated that microplastics – smaller than 5 millimeters – and nanoplastics, invisible to the naked eye, were at higher concentrations in the placea of babies prematurely than born of term.
In the past, plastics were found, among others, in the deepest section of the lungs or in the bloodstream of humans
