Surfers spend a lot of time in the ocean so this new study will be of interest, not only for the health of sea life. Nature Medicine reports how microplastics are getting into our brains and there is a growing link to dementia and other brain diseases. The correlation isn’t fully understood or proven, but enough is known to be a valid concern.
Microplastics are small pieces of plastic, less than five millimeters in length (about the size of a pencil eraser), that can pass through water filtration systems and end up in oceans, posing a threat to aquatic life, according to NOAA, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
Now we know more about how those particles are entering our physical bodies. The Washington Post reports that “the tiny fragments of plastic are passing the blood-brain barrier and into human brains, and the amount of microplastics in the brain appears to be increasing over time.” In fact, the concentration rose by about 50-percent from 2016 to 2024 in the brains studied. “The scientists also examined the brains of 12 deceased patients diagnosed with dementia, and found that they had three to five times as much microplastics as normal brains.”
The article explains that nanoplastics, which can be a fraction of the width of a human hair, were the most common microplastics found in the study.
The amount of microplastics detected in humans is increasing along with the production of plastic. University of New Mexico toxicology professor Matthew Campen told the Washington Post that “the amount of plastics produced globally doubles every 10 to 15 years, which suggests that humans’ level of exposure has skyrocketed. ‘To see it go up 50 percent in eight years in human organs … I think that’s perfectly in line with what we’re seeing in the environment.’”
A few other key points from the report:
The researchers estimated that the average brain studied had about seven grams of microplastics in it, or a little more than the weight of a plastic spoon. But they cautioned that could be an overestimate, as some other particles in the brain can resemble microplastics.
The paper also showed that the brain appears to be more susceptible to microplastics than other organs — brain samples had seven to 30 times as much microplastics in them as liver and kidney samples.
Researchers caution that it’s still far too early to connect microplastics to specific cognitive problems, given the ways in which dementia alters the body. Patients with dementia have weaker blood-brain barriers, they warn, and have a harder time clearing toxins from the brain. In human brains, therefore, the high numbers of microplastics could be an effect of dementia or Alzheimer’s, rather than the cause.
Again, there is a lot still to learn, but these findings are notable, as if the surfing community didn’t have enough reason to oppose plastics in the ocean already.
Link to the full study here.
