Micro-plastics in human blood system – will kill ya!

Do we have your attention now? I wondered in a more cynical moment if the recent discovery of micro-plastics within a reported material proportion of human population will actually prompt people to change behavior wrt plastics. Now that micro-plastics can kill them individually and directly rather than indirectly via environment destruction, will they notice, will they do any thing differently? Will you?

From the prestigious New England Journal of Medicine, Microplastics and Nanoplastics in Atheromas and Cardiovascular Events, the outcomes are really clear based on their methodology.

We conducted a prospective, multicenter, observational study involving patients who were undergoing carotid endarterectomy for asymptomatic carotid artery disease. The excised carotid plaque specimens were analyzed for the presence of MNPs with the use of pyrolysis–gas chromatography–mass spectrometry, stable isotope analysis, and electron microscopy. Inflammatory biomarkers were assessed with enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay and immunohistochemical assay. The primary end point was a composite of myocardial infarction, stroke, or death from any cause among patients who had evidence of MNPs in plaque as compared with patients with plaque that showed no evidence of MNPs.

https://www.nejm.org/doi/10.1056/NEJMoa2309822

Medical jargon for sure. But these conditions, diseases they mention kill people – lots of people. The results of the study are alarming, imho

A total of 304 patients were enrolled in the study, and 257 completed a mean (±SD) follow-up of 33.7±6.9 months. Polyethylene was detected in carotid artery plaque of 150 patients (58.4%), with a mean level of 21.7±24.5 μg per milligram of plaque; 31 patients (12.1%) also had measurable amounts of polyvinyl chloride, with a mean level of 5.2±2.4 μg per milligram of plaque. Electron microscopy revealed visible, jagged-edged foreign particles among plaque macrophages and scattered in the external debris. Radiographic examination showed that some of these particles included chlorine. Patients in whom MNPs were detected within the atheroma were at higher risk for a primary end-point event than those in whom these substances were not detected (hazard ratio, 4.53; 95% confidence interval, 2.00 to 10.27; P<0.001).

https://www.nejm.org/doi/10.1056/NEJMoa2309822

Like all good scientists, they also derived a conclusion.

In this study, patients with carotid artery plaque in which MNPs were detected had a higher risk of a composite of myocardial infarction, stroke, or death from any cause at 34 months of follow-up than those in whom MNPs were not detected.

https://www.nejm.org/doi/10.1056/NEJMoa2309822

IFLScience was the first place I saw reference to this study, but have since seen in several other feeds. More cynical commentary goes something like, until micro-plastics show up on death certificates of ’cause of death’, the majority of humans will continue to consume plastic, and generate tons of micro-plastics, … science is just too remote from their daily life choices.