Study: Plastic accumulation in human brains increased by 50% in last 8 years

UNM study finds plastic accumulation in brains increased by 50%

Researchers at the University of New Mexico are raising concern in a new study showing there is the equivalent of a spoonful of plastic in our brains.

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — Researchers at the University of New Mexico are raising concern in a new study showing there is the equivalent of a spoonful of plastic in our brains.

UNM researchers found the plastic accumulation in brains increased by 50% over the past eight years.

“We did have those moments where we we’re scratching our head and going back and saying, ‘Is this correct? Is this like, how is there this much?'” Dr. Marcus Garcia said.

For the last three years, Dr. Marcus Garcia has been studying microplastics and nanoplastics and how they accumulate in human organs. Garcia is one of the lead researchers on a project looking at the amount of microplastics – and even nanoplastics – accumulating in our brains over time.

“A lot of this is also following the same amount of accumulation that we’re seeing in the environment with more production of plastics, as well as everyday use with them as well too,” he said.

Garcia said plastics sit in a landfill for decades and build up in our soil and water.

“We’re hoping that there can be a lot of policy change around how we can get rid of those plastics from those landfills and and even just mitigate some of the uses of these plastics, or better ways to recycle or manage as well, too,” he said.

Researchers also found an alarming trend in brain tissue from people diagnosed with dementia.

“Even at our highest concentrations in our healthy brain tissues that we analyze, dementia cases had 10 times the amount of plastic as compared to what we were seeing in our healthy tissues as well too,” Garcia said.

Right now, researchers can’t say whether the plastics cause the disease – or how it’s related – but they hope to have that ability in the future.

“Hopefully down the line, [we] really start to link a lot of these amounts that we’re seeing in these biological tissues to specific health conditions,” Garcia said.

The study also showed greater plastic accumulation in the human liver and kidney. However, researchers said those organs do a better job of clearing them compared to the brain.

Garcia hopes to continue the study of microplastics and nanoplastics for at least another couple of years.