{"id":509417,"date":"2024-05-07T17:09:12","date_gmt":"2024-05-07T20:09:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/?p=509417"},"modified":"2024-05-08T09:26:26","modified_gmt":"2024-05-08T12:26:26","slug":"the-impacts-of-microplastics-on-human-health","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/the-impacts-of-microplastics-on-human-health\/","title":{"rendered":"The impacts of microplastics on human health"},"content":{"rendered":"

Research on the impacts of microplastics on human health is still in its infancy. In one of the first studies in the field, a team from the Pathology Department of the School of Medicine at the University of S\u00e3o Paulo (FM-USP) detected microplastics in human lungs, as described in a 2021 article in Journal of Hazardous Materials<\/em> (see<\/em> Pesquisa FAPESP issue n\u00ba 305<\/em><\/a>). \u201cMicroplastics are in the air and it is inevitable that they are inhaled. We saw that they reach the lungs, but we still need to determine the health impact,\u201d says pathologist Thais Mauad, who led the study.<\/p>\n

According to Mauad, studies using cultures that simulate human tissues indicate that plastic fragments cause cellular damage and can cause inflammation, but it is not yet possible to quantify the number of particles needed to cause serious damage or to determine the impact of absorbing the chemical additives present in the plastics.<\/p>\n

See more:<\/strong>
\n– Microplastics found along the Brazilian coastline<\/a><\/div>\n

In a January 2021 article in Environment International<\/em>, Italian scientists from Marche Polytechnic University in Ancona reported that microplastics had been found in the placenta of pregnant women. Despite acknowledging that the effects were unknown, the group warned of the risk of fetus malformation and the need for further studies. In May 2022, researchers at Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam in the Netherlands revealed that 77% of the country’s blood donors carried high amounts of plastic particles in their blood.<\/p>\n

In a more recent study described in Environmental Science & Technology<\/em> in July, a medical team from Anzhen Hospital in Beijing, China, found microplastics in human hearts for the first time. The doctors evaluated the heart muscles of 15 patients who were undergoing surgical interventions and found nine different types of plastic in five different cardiac tissue types.<\/p>\n

The United Nations Environmental Program (UNEP) estimates that humans produce around 460 million tons of plastic per year, a figure that could potentially triple by 2060. Much of the plastic waste ends up in the sea \u2014 Brazil alone releases 3.44 million tons of plastic waste off its coast every year (see<\/em> Pesquisa FAPESP issue n\u00ba 321<\/em><\/a>). According to experts consulted by Pesquisa<\/em> FAPESP<\/em>, the problem needs a global solution. For now, despite being considered merely remedial, adopting the so-called 3Rs of sustainability \u2014 reduce, reuse, and recycle \u2014 would be a good first step. Attention is focused on the Global Treaty on Plastic Pollution, for which the United Nations (UN) intends to gain the support of 175 countries by the end of 2024.<\/p>\n

Projects<\/strong>
\n1.<\/strong> Identification and physical and chemical characterization of environmental microplastics in the atmosphere and in human lung tissue (n\u00ba 19\/03397-5<\/a>); Grant Mechanism<\/strong> Postdoctoral Fellowship; Supervisor<\/strong> Thais Mauad (USP); Beneficiary<\/strong> Lu\u00eds Fernando Amato Louren\u00e7o; Investment<\/strong> R$254,097.97.
\n2.<\/strong> Airborne microplastics: Detection in ambient air samples and lung tissue and the effects on cultured pulmonary epithelial cells (n\u00ba 19\/02898-0<\/a>); Grant Mechanism<\/strong> Regular Research Grant; Principal Investigator<\/strong> Thais Mauad (USP); Investment <\/strong>R$40,949.36.<\/p>\n

Scientific articles<\/strong>
\n<\/strong>AMATO-LOUREN\u00c7O, L. F. et al.<\/em>Presence of airborne microplastics in human lung tissue<\/a>. Journal of Hazardous Materials<\/strong>. <\/strong>vol. 416. aug. 2021.
\n<\/strong>RAGUSE, A. et al.<\/em>Plasticenta: First evidence of microplastics in human placenta<\/a>. Environment International<\/strong>. <\/strong>vol. 146. jan. 2021.
\n<\/strong>LESLIE, A. et al.<\/em>Discovery and quantification of plastic particle pollution in human blood<\/a>. Environment International<\/strong>. <\/strong>vol. 163. may 2022.
\n<\/strong>YANG, Y. et al.<\/em>Detection of various microplastics in patients undergoing cardiac surgery<\/a>. Environmental Science & Technology<\/strong>. <\/strong>july 13, 2023.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Studies using different cell cultures show that microplastics can cause structural and inflammatory lesions","protected":false},"author":538,"featured_media":509422,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[169],"tags":[259,200,260],"coauthors":[1346],"class_list":["post-509417","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-technology","tag-chemistry","tag-environment","tag-public-health","position_at_home-sumario"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/509417","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/538"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=509417"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/509417\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":511181,"href":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/509417\/revisions\/511181"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/509422"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=509417"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=509417"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=509417"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=509417"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}