Scientists warn particles could travel around the body and become lodged in organs
- Dutch researchers took blood samples from 22 anonymous healthy adult donors
- A total of 17, or 77.2 per cent, were found to have microplastics in their samples
- Microplastics are tiny pieces of plastic less than 0.2 of an inch (5mm) in diameter
- Scientists are still trying to determine the effect of ingesting these tiny particles
By Jonathan Chadwick For Mailonline
Published: 02:25 AEDT, 25 March 2022 | Updated: 07:11 AEDT, 25 March 2022
Microplastics – tiny pieces of plastic less than 0.2 of an inch (5mm) in diameter – have been found in human blood for the first time.
Scientists in the Netherlands took blood samples from 22 anonymous healthy adult donors and analysed them for particles as small as 0.00002 of an inch.
The researchers found that 17 out of the 22 volunteers (77.2 per cent) had microplastics in their blood – a finding described as ‘extremely concerning’.
Microplastics have been found in the brain, gut, the placenta of unborn babies and the faeces of adults and infants, but never before from blood samples.
