NEWSWEEK – Microplastics have been detected in human brains at far higher concentrations than in other bodily organs—and levels are increasing, having risen 50 percent in eight years.
This is the conclusion of a team of researchers from the University of New Mexico (UNM), who said the findings should trigger alarm.
The rate of microplastic accumulation in our brains, they said, mirrors the increasing amount of plastic waste across the Earth.
“This really changes the landscape. It makes it so much more personal,” UNM toxicologist professor Matthew Campen said in a statement.
“I have yet to encounter a single human being who says, ‘There’s a bunch of plastic in my brain and I’m totally cool with that’.”
“Researchers identified 12 different types of plastic within the samples. The most common was polyethylene, which is used, among other things, to make plastic bottles and cups.”
Microplastic (smaller than 5 millimeters in size) and nanoplastic (under 0.001 millimeters) pollution have become ubiquitous in the environment and can get into the very food we eat.
These particles have been found in various bodily organs—including the kidney, liver, placenta and testes—although not at such concentrations as now seen in the brain, the team said.
In their study, Campen and colleagues studied samples of human brain tissue donated by the New Mexico Office of the Medical Investigator (OMI) that were collected via autopsy.
All of the samples were collected from the so-called frontal cortex—the brain region found above and behind the eyes that had been linked to various capabilities from abstract thinking through to motor function.
As the OMI is required by law to retain tissues from autopsies for seven years before disposal, the samples dated back to 2016. The team compared the oldest samples with tissue collected in 2024 …
