Microplastics

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"Scientists make disturbing discovery about almost all protein sources: ‘There’s no way to hide’"
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Jakki, I'm sorry to hear about your medical problem. I can only wish you a good outcome (and I know so little about medicine I'm unclear whether or nor "outcome" should be taken literally.

People with microplastics or nanoplastics in their carotid artery tissues were twice as likely to have a heart attack, stroke or die from any cause over the next three years than people who had none, a new study found.

"Nanoplastics linked to heart attack, stroke and early death, study finds"

Microplastics have been found in historic soil samples for the first time, according to a new study, potentially upending the way archaeological remains are preserved.

Researchers found microplastics in soil deposits more than seven meters (23 feet) underground, which were deposited in the first or second century CE and excavated in the 1980s, a team led by researchers from the University of York in the United Kingdom said in a statement published Friday.

"Archaeologists are now finding microplastics in ancient remains"

According to Phys.org and the World Economic Forum, a garbage truck's worth of plastic enters the ocean every single minute. The International Union for Conservation of Nature explained that ocean organisms sometimes eat this waste and it moves up the food web, eventually ending up in our bodies. This is dangerous, as several chemicals used in plastic production are known carcinogens that can cause developmental, reproductive, neurological, and immune disorders in humans and wildlife.

And according to the study's lead author, Alice Zhu, the estimate of plastic pollution sitting on the ocean floor could be 100 times more than what we believe is floating on the surface.

We already know that ocean plastics endanger wildlife like seabirds, whales, fish, and turtles who may mistake plastic for prey. Most of these animals die of starvation as their stomachs become filled with plastic, according to the International Union for Conservation of Nature. They can also suffer from lacerations, infections, reduced ability to swim, and internal injuries, the organization said. Similarly, plastic waste on the ocean floor affects plants and animals who live and hunt in this zone, and can move up the food chain.

For all the damage that microplastics are doing to the planet, it may be that only an impending threat to the human body will direct the kind of attention to the issue that it has long deserved.

That moment, researchers say, is here. Several recent studies into microplastics, the voluminous and tiny (think 5mm or smaller) bits of material that can take hundreds of years to degrade, suggest not only that they are everywhere, but that they’re making their way into our bloodstreams–with potentially hazardous results.

The research isn’t nearly complete, and the science is evolving. Still, a consensus is forming among those in the field: The threat of microplastics to some of our body functions is real, and it is growing.

“We humans have to decide what to do with the knowledge that we are a little bit plastic inside,” says Heather Leslie, an independent scientist who pioneered microplastics and human health research in Europe. While the extent of the potential damage is still unexplored territory, Leslie tells Fortune, “The evidence for inflammatory effects and metabolic changes in tissues where microplastics accumulate is building.”
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What’s in these resulting microplastics, and their invisible cousins nanoplastics? According to recent research, the plastics industry comprises at least 16,000 chemicals in its various products, more than a quarter of which have been deemed hazardous to human health and the environment. Added chemicals can include highly toxic compounds like carcinogens, endocrine disruptors and neurotoxicants, or chemicals with reproductive effects, such as BPAs, phthalates, bisphenols and per- and poly-flouroalkyl substances (PFAS).

A series of studies has begun bearing out the human toll of all this. A stunning report in the New England Journal of Medicine in March found that among patients who were undergoing tests for carotid artery disease, those in whom microplastics were detected within the plaque lining their arteries were at a 4.5 times greater risk of experiencing a heart attack, stroke or death than those without such findings.
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By one estimate, health problems related to plastic chemicals cost the U.S. health care system $249 billion in 2018 alone.
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