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Plastic is everywhere in modern life. Take a look around you – from food and drink packaging to car tyres, paints to cleaning products, it’s hard to get through a single day without it. It’s no surprise we’ve developed something of a love affair with plastic, considering all the benefits, like keeping food safe for longer, and reducing manufacturing energy compared with glass or metal.
Life in plastic might feel fantastic, but it has its drawbacks. One of the biggest talking points right now is microplastics – particularly, whether we might have microplastics in our bodies.
To help unpack the science, we sat down with Deakin University’s associate professor Maryam Naebe, whose expertise covers microplastics research.
Microplastics are plastic particles ranging from 5mm down to a nanometre in size. According to Naebe, microplastics can come from two main sources.
‘[There are] primary microplastics, which are made small on purpose (like microbeads in personal care products or plastic pellets used in manufacturing), and secondary microplastics, which form when larger plastic items break down over time due to sunlight, friction, or other environmental factors,” Naebe says.
Before they end up in our bodies, microplastics tend to start out in common products in particular, including:
While a lot of the media chatter around the dangers of microplastics has concerned black plastic and cling wrap – and these plastics can be sources of microplastics when degraded – Naebe says these are far less concerning than the sources listed above.
One of the biggest concerns about these tiny particles is whether microplastics can make their way into human bodies. While we don’t know for certain if every single person has microplastics in their body, detection is now extremely common.
‘Microplastics have been found in many parts of the human body, including blood, lungs, placenta and even in stool samples, showing that exposure is widespread,’ Naebe says. ‘Recent studies have confirmed that 0.5% of the human brain contains plastic, equal to a spoonful.’
In one study on human placenta, every sample analysed had some amount of microplastics. Other studies have suggested that the average person may ingest or inhale the equivalent of a credit card’s worth of microplastics each week, or around 50 plastic bags each year.
If you do have microplastics in your body, Naebe says they’re most likely coming from:
We now know it’s not at all unusual to have microplastics in our body. But should we be worried?
‘We should be concerned but not panic,’ Naebe says. ‘The fact that microplastics are being found in human tissues – such as the lungs, blood, placenta and even the brain – is worrying, especially because these particles were never meant to be part of our biology.’
So, while we should be alert rather than alarmed, Naebe says that deeper research is needed to truly understand the scale of the microplastic issue.
‘We don’t yet have definitive answers about the full impact on human health, especially over long periods,’ she says. ‘Much of the current evidence comes from lab or animal studies, so more research is urgently needed to understand real-world risks. In the meantime, reducing plastic exposure where possible is a smart precaution.’
As Naebe says, we don’t yet know the full effect of microplastics on humans. Emerging research is starting to paint a picture, though, with Naebe’s own studies (in collaboration with a Korean university) showing that microplastics from synthetic fibres can accelerate the growth of skin cancer cells.
Other potential effects of microplastics on the body include:
We don’t yet know how much of a threat microplastics are to our body and health, but it’s safe to say we’d all like to keep our insides plastic-free. So, can we get rid of microplastics in our body?
‘At this stage, we don’t have proven methods to remove microplastics from the human body,’ Naebe says. ‘Because the particles are so small, often microscopic and can travel through the bloodstream or lodge in organs and tissues, it’s challenging to track or extract them once they’re inside.’
You might have heard that donating blood might help microplastics leave the body. According to Naebe, it’s likely a long shot.
‘There’s currently no evidence that giving blood helps remove microplastics from the body,’ she says. ‘While donating blood may remove some particles circulating in the bloodstream, it wouldn’t address microplastics that have already settled in organs or tissues.’
Beyond our bodies, microplastics have been found in oceans, remote islands and polar regions, so it seems there’s no outrunning this tiny but stubborn problem. While researchers work to understand the full health risks, we might be best off learning how to avoid microplastics.
Here are some starting points:
We may never be microplastic-free, but by implementing the tips above, we can at least limit our exposure to this microscopic threat. ‘No method offers total protection, small lifestyle changes can significantly reduce our exposure and also help reduce plastic pollution more broadly,’ Naebe says.
Associate Professor,
Faculty of Science Engineering & Built Environment,
Deakin University
