UNM Researchers Find Alarmingly High Levels of Microplastics in Human Brains – And Concentrations Are Growing Over Time

Microplastics – tiny bits of degraded polymers that are ubiquitous in our air, water and soil – have lodged themselves throughout the human body, including the liver, kidney, placenta and testes, over the past half century.

Now, University of New Mexico Health Sciences researchers have found microplastics in human brains, and at much higher concentrations than in other organs. Worse, the plastic accumulation appears to be growing over time, having increased by 50% over just the past eight years.

In a new study published in Nature Medicine, a team led by toxicologist Matthew Campen, PhD, Distinguished and Regents’ Professor in the UNM College of Pharmacy, reported that plastic concentrations in the brain appeared higher than in the liver or kidney, and higher than previous reports for placentas and testes.

The rate of accumulation mirrors the increasing amounts of plastics waste on this planet, Campen said. “This really changes the landscape. It makes it so much more personal,” he said. Additionally, they observed that much of the plastic appears to be much smaller than previously appreciated – in the nanometer scale, about two to three times the size of viruses.

The findings should trigger alarm, he said.