Microplastics have been a pervasive environmental concern, with an estimated trillions of microscopic plastic particles polluting the world’s oceans. Additionally, microplastics have already been found in tissue from animals and humans, including particles discovered in the spleens, livers and kidneys of both live and deceased humans. Now, a team from the University of Hull and Castle Hill Hospital in the UK have made another startling discovery–using micro Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (μFTIR), the researchers detected microplastics in lung tissue from living humans for the first time.
The researchers considered the possibility that microplastics in the environment could be inhaled by humans. The team worked with surgeons at Castle Hill Hospital and obtained 13 samples from patients undergoing lung surgery, who agreed to allow their lung tissue to be removed and examined for the study. The tissue was collected from 11 patients total, with two of the patients providing more than one sample. The samples were analyzed using an μFTIR system with a lower size limit of detection of 3 μm, which revealed the presence of microplastics in 11 of the 13 lung tissue samples. In total, 39 microplastic pieces of 12 different polymer types were found.
Microplastic pieces were found not only in the upper parts of the lungs, but also in the lower regions where airways are smaller and harder to reach. The most common polymer types found in the tissue samples were polypropylene (PP, 23%) and polyethylene terephthalate (PET, 18%). Nearly half (49%) of the microplastics observed were fibers, 43% were fragments and 8% were film. The particle lengths ranged from 12 μm up to 2475 μm and particle widths ranged from 4 μm to 88 μm. The researchers also found that of the five female patients and six male patients, all of the male patients’ samples contained at least one microplastic while two of the five female patients’ samples contained no microplastics. This research was published in Science of The Total Environment.
The study is among the most recent to reveal the presence of microplastics in the human body; last month, a team from the Netherlands reported finding microplastics in the bloodstream of a live human patient for the first time. The UK researchers wrote that their findings could guide research into the health implications of microplastics inhalation, as currently the effects of microplastics in the human body are not fully understood.