It Doesn’t Take Much for Microplastics to Leach Into Food, Researchers Warn

Scientists are finding microplastics everywhere from brain tissue to arteries and warning of the health risks posed by their buildup inside our bodies. They’re also discovering just how easily the tiny particles get there.

Microplastics don’t just shed off of plastic items from overuse, like when a water bottle breaks down over weeks or months of being washed and refilled. They also leach into our food and drinks with even the brief use of a product with plastic components, alarming scientists.

“We’re talking about cardiovascular mortality,” said Dr. Leonardo Trasande, director of the Grossman Center for the Investigation of Environmental Hazards at New York University. “We’re also talking about hormone-sensitive cancers — breast, thyroid, ovarian, not to mention kidney cancer — that have been associated with these chemical exposures.”

Microplastics are tiny fragments of plastic less than 5 millimeters in diameter, some a fraction of the width of a strand of human hair. And nanoplastics, even tinier plastic particles measuring less than a millionth of a meter, are too small to see with standard light-based microscopes.