Dutch scientists find evidence of plastic particles in human blood
-
Loading... - Celeste Auclair
- 25 Mar 2022
- 372 Views
- 0 Like
- 0 Comment
A team of Dutch scientists have found evidence of plastic particle pollution in human blood for the first time. Scientists already know people ingest the particles, which have been found in faeces and the placenta, but their presence in the blood had proved elusive until now. Researchers at Amsterdam’s VU University used special glass tools to carry out the research, to avoid the results being skewed by plastic research equipment. They looked at 22 trial participants, and found plastic particles in the blood of 17. Half of the samples contained PET, a type of polyester used to make plastic bottles.
In a third of cases they found polystyrene, a packaging material often used for food. Microplastics, up to 5 mm in size, are a result of the deterioration of plastic waste and have been found everywhere in the environment. The particles that the scientists were able to detect in the blood are much smaller and measured between 700 nanometre and half a millimetre.
