Micro/Nano plastics in the brain increased nearly 50% in just 8 years
An autopsy study that obtained postmortem (after death) liver, kidney and brain tissue specimens, solely from the frontal cortex, between 2016 and 2024, found, through gas chromatography–mass spectrometry, that the brain tissue samples had significantly higher concentrations of microplastics and nanoplastics than kidney and liver tissue samples. Median concentrations increased about 47% between 2016 (3,345 micrograms) and 2024 (4,917 micrograms). Brain tissue samples from an even earlier time frame (1997-2013) had even lower microplastic and nanoplastic concentrations of a median 1,254 micrograms and samples from dementia patients revealed a 5x increase in microplastic and nanoplastic concentrations (median 26,076 micrograms) compared to other samples, likely due to an impaired blood-brain barrier that is caused by Alzheimer's.
While this study can’t tell us how micro and nano plastic concentrations in the brain could have increased this fast in less than a decade we do have a preponderance of evidence that a certain event that transpired in that time frame likely contributed to that increase. As I pointed out in 2023, mask mandates and the proliferation of disposable face masks increased microplastic and nanoplastic absorption into the human body. Several studies have detected microplastics in human lungs indicating that they are airborne and can be inhaled and that includes through the disposable face masks we were forced to wear a couple of years ago. At least four studies have detected microplastics in the lungs after wearing a disposable face mask (Ma et al., 2021, Nelms et al., 2018; Yan et al. 2020b Li et al. 2021a) and the number and type of microplastics released from masks do not differ by type of mask won. Several animal studies have found that microplastics and nanoplastics absorbed through the gut can cross the blood brain barrier and have neuro-toxic effects as well. This study, published in Environmental Pollution, detected micro plastics in the nasal mucus of mask wearers after prolonged use of disposable face masks and found, using a scanning electron microscope, that different disposable face masks released anywhere from 1.6 to 3.8 billion nano plastics. They detected a total of 2.8 to 6 billion nano plastics in each mask using atomic force microscopy. Plastic contamination in various organs is not benign either. Animal studies have found that microplastics can absorb other environmental pollutants as well.