Microplastics linked to cardiovascular risks
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Illustration: Aïda Amer/Axios
Scientists are sounding new alarms about the health risks from microplastics after researchers in Italy found concentrations of polyethylene and polyvinyl chloride in plaques removed from patients with cardiovascular disease.
Why it matters: Microplastics are in our drinking water and the air we breathe. They've been found ingested in other organ systems, though the health effects aren't fully understood.
What they found: The study in the New England Journal of Medicine found a measurable amount of microplastics in more than half of 257 Italian patients who had surgery for plaque buildup in their carotid arteries.
- Over almost three years, these individuals had a 4.5 times greater risk of major events, including heart attacks and strokes.
Where it stands: The findings are "a game changer," but don't definitively prove that plastics cause cardiovascular events, said Phil Landrigan, who directs Boston College's Program for Global Public Health and the Common Good.
- Eric Topol, executive vice president of Scripps Research, called the study "deeply concerning," adding it pointed to the unchecked buildup of plastics and our ingestion and inhalation of them.
- "The new study takes the worry about micronanoplastics to a new level —getting into our arteries and exacerbating the process of atherosclerosis, the leading global killer — and demands urgent attention," Topol wrote in a blog post.
What's next: The study needs to be replicated with a bigger patient population.
- Scientists will also seek to answer other questions about microplastics and health.
- Among these are whether microplastics in the brain are linked to neurological conditions like dementia or Parkinson's disease, and determining if certain plastics are more harmful than others.
- "The research community will be energized. My guess is that funders ... they'll probably start directing more money into plastics" research, Landrigan said.
Reality check: Efforts to ban single-use items like plastic water bottles could face big hurdles. Beyond that, it would take major behavioral changes to change the way we eat or clean.
The bottom line: "We have to make a distinction between the plastics that are essential and the and the plastics that are stupid," said Landrigan.
- Regulators will need to act and health systems will need to reduce their own plastic use as evidence accumulates, he said.
