The Plastic Inside You Isn’t Going Anywhere

By Jill Ettinger

Microplastic is inside you. Scientists say that no matter how much plastic you cut out of your life, your body is already full of it and likely will be forever.

Microplastics are no longer just an environmental concern; they are now an unavoidable part of human biology. These tiny particles, which measure less than five millimeters in size, have infiltrated food, water, air, and even the bloodstream. Recent studies suggest that no matter how much plastic you cut from your life, the microplastics already inside you are likely to stay.

Over the past 70 years, global plastic production has exceeded eight billion tons. Researchers estimate that people consume and inhale up to one credit card’s worth of plastic per week. With microplastics found in placentas, lungs, and human blood, their presence is not just a passing issue — it is a permanent one.

How microplastics enter the body

The assumption that plastic exposure comes mainly from polluted oceans or single-use water bottles is outdated. The truth is much more ominous — microplastics are embedded in nearly every facet of daily life. Researchers have identified three major entry points into the human body: food, water, and air.

Contaminated food is a major culprit. While seafood has been widely discussed as a leading source of microplastics, studies show that these particles are also present in an array of other everyday items, including salt, honey, and fresh produce. A 2015 study found that over 90 percent of global table salt brands contained microplastics. Even water, whether bottled or tap, is laced with plastic fragments; research published in 2018 found that 93 percent of bottled water samples from leading brands contained microplastics.

Inhalation is another significant yet often overlooked exposure route. A 2019 study revealed that microplastics had been detected even in the remote French Pyrenees, proving that these airborne pollutants travel far beyond urban centers. Indoors, the issue is amplified. Synthetic carpets, furniture, and clothing continuously release plastic particles into the air. Researchers estimate that the average person inhales tens of thousands of microplastic fibers each year.

Synthetic clothing is one of the most insidious sources of microplastic contamination. Polyester, nylon, and acrylic fabrics shed microfibers during washing, which then flow into wastewater systems. These fibers are too small to be filtered out by treatment plants, ultimately entering drinking water and the food chain. Research suggests that a single load of laundry releases up to 700,000 plastic microfibers.

Once inside, microplastics are nearly impossible to remove

Microplastics do not just pass through the body — they accumulate. A 2019 study found that microplastics were present in human stool samples, proving that the gastrointestinal system does expel some particles. However, not all plastics exit the body so easily. Research has shown that some microplastics can cross the intestinal barrier and enter the bloodstream, potentially reaching organs.

“There are so many unknowns,” Bernardo Lemos, an adjunct professor of environmental epigenetics at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health said in an interview, “but we are seeing more data that suggest microplastics affect human biology.”

In 2021, scientists made a startling discovery: microplastics had been found in human placental tissue. This means that plastic exposure begins before birth, raising concerns about long-term developmental effects. Unlike other environmental toxins that the body can metabolize and expel, plastics are synthetic, chemically stable, and resistant to breakdown.

The durability of these materials is what makes them so useful in consumer products, but it is also what makes them impossible to eliminate from the body. Scientists studying the biological fate of microplastics warn that once embedded in tissues, they may never fully degrade. The presence of chemical additives, including endocrine disruptors and flame retardants, compounds the issue by introducing additional toxic risks.

A new study found levels of microplastics in human brains at much higher concentrations than other organs. That study found the accumulation of plastic in the brain appears to be growing over time — increasing by 50 percent over just the past eight years. Some experts estimate the average human brain may contain up to a “spoon’s worth” of microplastic.

“We start thinking that maybe these plastics obstruct blood flow in capillaries,” Matthew Campen, PhD, Distinguished and Regents’ Professor in the UNM College of Pharmacy said in a statement. “There’s the potential that these nanomaterials interfere with the connections between axons in the brain. They could also be a seed for aggregation of proteins involved in dementia. We just don’t know.”

Campen points to the way crops are irrigated with plastic-contaminated water. “We feed those crops to our livestock. We take the manure and put it back on the field, so there may be a sort of feed-forward biomagnification,” he said, noting the research team found high concentrations of plastic in meat bought at supermarkets.

The illusion of avoidance

For consumers looking to “detox” from microplastics, the reality is discouraging. Eliminating bottled water, choosing natural fibers, and avoiding processed foods may reduce exposure, but there is no way to undo decades of accumulation. Scientists stress that reducing future intake is the only viable strategy, as the body has no effective mechanism for expelling all of the plastic it absorbs.

According to UCSF microplastic researcher Laura López, there are easy ways to avoid introducing new microplastics into your body like reducing your exposure to plastic-wrapped food, never microwaving plastic, avoiding processed foods, and plastic water bottles. But she says there’s only so much an individual can do. “I’ve learned that it’s really important to be engaged in holding the government accountable for these exposures because, for so many of them, you or I can’t do anything about them — only the government can regulate chemicals that make their way into our water, food and products we wear and put on our bodies,” González wrote in a blog post. “We should be able to go into a store and purchase an item and know that the government has made sure it’s safe for us and our families. The burden can’t be on consumers to navigate all of this.”

Public health organizations, including the World Health Organization (WHO), have acknowledged the need for further research, urging governments and industries to take action.

“We urgently need to know more about the health impact of microplastics because they are everywhere –  including in our drinking water,” Dr Maria Neira, Director, Department of Public Health, Environment and Social Determinants of Health, at WHO, said in 2019. “[W]e need to find out more. We also need to stop the rise in plastic pollution worldwide.”

Some companies have begun responding, with brands like Patagonia and Everlane incorporating more sustainable materials and reducing synthetic fabrics in their collections. Reusable water bottles have begun replacing single-use plastic bottles and advances in water filtration technology offer some hope in intercepting microplastics before they reach consumers.

Yet, the larger issue remains unresolved. Plastic production is still increasing, and recycling efforts have failed to keep pace. And issues like ghost gear — abandoned commercial-scale fishing nets — continue to pollute marine ecosystems and the food chain. Until systemic changes are made — both in how plastics are manufactured and how waste is managed — individual efforts to avoid exposure will remain largely symbolic. The plastic already inside the human body is here to stay, and future generations will inherit an even greater burden unless meaningful action is taken.

Related on Ethos:

• Al Gore’s Generation Launches $1.7 Billion Sustainability Growth Fund
• Will COP28 Finally Look Like It Should?
• Organically Grown Food Is Better for Our Health and the Planet. So Why Aren’t We Eating More of It?
• The E.U. Glitter Ban Is Just the Beginning of the Microplastic Crackdown
• 2 New Studies Reveal Microplastic’s Oceanic Threats and Novel Plant-Based Solutions

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This post was previously published on THE-ETHOS.CO and is republished on Medium.

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