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Microplastics have been found in all human placentas analyzed in one study, leaving researchers concerned about potential health impacts on developing fetuses.
The scientists analyzed 62 samples of placental tissue and found that the most common plastic detected was polyethylene, which is used to make plastic bags and bottles. A second study revealed microplastics in all 17 human arteries analyzed and suggested that the particles may be related to the clogging of blood vessels.
Microplastics have also recently been discovered in human blood and breast milk, indicating widespread contamination of people’s bodies. The impact on health is still unknown, but microplastics have been shown in the laboratory to cause damage to human cells. The particles could lodge in tissues and cause inflammation, as air pollution particles do, or the chemicals in plastics could cause damage.
Huge amounts of plastic waste are dumped into the environment and microplastics have contaminated the entire planet, from the top of Mount Everest to the deepest oceans. People are known to consume the tiny particles through food and water, as well as inhaling them, and they have been found in the feces of babies and adults.
Professor Matthew Campen, from the University of New Mexico, US, who led the research, said: “If we see effects in placentas, then all mammalian life on this planet could be affected. That’s not good.”
He said the rising concentration of microplastics in human tissue could explain puzzling increases in some health problems, including inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), colon cancer in people under 50 and declining sperm counts. A 2021 study found that people with IBD had 50% more microplastics in their stool.
Campen said he was deeply concerned about the growing global production of plastics because it meant the problem of microplastics in the environment is “only getting worse”.
The research, published in the Toxicological Sciences Journal, found microplastics in all placenta samples analyzed, with concentrations ranging between 6.5 and 790 micrograms per gram of tissue. PVC and nylon were the most common plastics detected, after polyethylene.
The microplastics were analyzed using chemicals and a centrifuge to separate them from the fabric, then heating them and analyzing the characteristic chemical signature of each plastic. The same technique was used by scientists at Capital Medical University in Beijing, China, to detect microplastics in human artery samples.
Microplastics were first detected in placentas in 2020, in samples from four healthy women who had normal pregnancies and births in Italy. The scientists saying: “Microplastics carry substances that, acting as endocrine disruptors, could cause long-term effects on human health.”
Campen said the concentration of microplastics in placentas was especially worrying. The tissue only grows for eight months, as it begins to form about a month after pregnancy. “Other organs in your body accumulate over much longer periods of time,” she added.