Meanwhile,
What risks our health?:
What do microplastics do to our brain? Meanwhile, The answer is far from being decided. For example, but the question cannot be eluded while studies show more and more clearly that these particles accumulate in our nervous system.
A study in early 2025. Moreover, notably aroused great attention and constitutes a significant advance in the evaluation of the exposure of our brains to microplastics. Furthermore, Published in Nature Medicinethis work concluded that a “tendency to Increase in microplastics concentration in the brain and the liver ”.
These conclusions have largely contributed to opening a new chapter in broader questions around the health effects of these tiny plastic particles: less than five what risks our health? millimeters when it is spoken of microplastics. Furthermore, 1,000 times less when we mention nanoplastics.
They are omnipresent in the environment and. therefore, inhaled or ingested daily by each of us, which makes it a subject at the heart of the negotiations which reopen Tuesday in Geneva to lead to a treaty against plastic pollution.
Before the brain. scientists have already found microplastics in recent years in the lungs, the heart, the liver, the kidneys, or even in the placenta and the blood.
The equivalent of a teaspoon of microplastics – What risks our health?
The study published in Nature Medicine was carried out from. the autopsy of around fifty people who died in the American state of new-mexic. Part of the sample had died in 2016, the other in 2024. This work concluded that the systematic presence of microplasticism in the brain. as well as a clear increase between the what risks our health? two dates.
A brain could thus contain the equivalent of a teaspoon of microplastics. had imagined Matthew Capen, principal researcher of the study. The American toxicologist had also estimated that researchers could extract approximately 10 grams of plastic from a removed brain.
A figure likely to make an impression. but some specialists emphasize that the study cannot be self-sufficient, given the small number of people and their geographic concentration in one place.
“Interpret with care” – What risks our health?
“Even if these are interesting results. they must be interpreted with caution,” warns the researcher Theodore Henry, a specialist in environmental toxicology at the Scottish University Heriot-Watt, with AFP. And “at this stage, speculation about possible health effects venture far beyond the evidence,” he puts it into perspective.
Likewise. Oliver Jones, professor of chemistry at Australian University Rmit, prefers to remain cautious: “If – and it is a big if what risks our health? in my opinion – there are microplastics in our brain, There is currently no evidence of harmfulness“, He underlines to AFP.
– thrombosis in mice –
However. many researchers consider that this study largely justifies to question the effects of microplastics on our brain, while, in recent years, first elements have appeared on other health risks.
Increased risk of heart attack. stroke
A study published in 2024 in the New England Journal of Medicine shows an association between the accumulation of these particles in blood vessels and a Increased risk of heart attack, stroke, or even deathin some people with atherosclerosis, a disease affecting the arteries.
Currently. no study of this type exists for the brain and, more broadly, the neurological risks associated with microplastics in humans. But toxicologists call for the precautionary principle. citing the example of other types of pollution such as that with fine what risks our health? particles in the air.
“What is worrying for the brain is that fine particles are the chemical component of the exhibition”. that is to say all of the environmental factors to which a person is exposed, “who is most associated with Alzheimer’s disease”, underlines the French toxicologist Xavier Coumoul, professor at Paris Cité University.
More research is needed
Would it be the same for microplastics? The answer is not obvious since the fine particles are of a “completely different nature”. as Xavier COUMOUL notes, but it deserves more research, in particular experiences on animals like mice.
Still few. these studies are nevertheless beginning to give some results, even if they cannot alleviate similar effects in humans alone.
Posted in January in the journal Science Advancesan experience. for example, highlighted in what risks our health? mice the deleterious effects of microplastics whose presence was detected live in the brain by advanced imaging techniques. These microplastics “can cause brain thrombosis (…) And generate neurocomplementary disorders, ”conclude the authors of this study conducted in China.
Source: AFP
Follow all the news in your favorite cities and media by registering for my news.
Further reading: New treatment gives hope to patients with rare diseases this summer – A new method genetically prevent mosquitoes from transmitting malaria – Increase in cases of the Nile virus in Quebec – M105 – FM 104.9 – Traveling in full blend of measles – A promising light experience on mice in Strasbourg.
