How to fight plastic pollution in ourselves and our environment
Originally posted in Middle-Pause on Medium on March 5, 2025
I read a highly distressing article a few days ago, spurred by nothing other than a poem: “Your Brain May Have a Spoon’s Worth of Microplastics.”
The poem is about a man who struggles with dementia and about how little control we have on what we remember — and, ultimately, on what happens in the brain. The author, Greg Hughes, also makes an analogy between discarded plastics and discarded memories, as if our brains, too, get to be recycled by some banished angels who have more use for some of our cherished reminiscences than we do.
A mind-bending consideration — just like the fact that we may have a spoonful of microplastics inside our brains.
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In a 2024 study conducted at the University of New Mexico and published on Feb. 3 this year in Nature Medicine, autopsies on individuals who died in 2016 and 2024 revealed 7 to 30 times more specks of plastic in the brain samples than in the kidneys and livers of those bodies. These tiny shards are called microplastics (less than 5 millimeters in diameter) and nanoplastics (1 nanometer to 1 micrometer, that is 0.000001 millimeter to 0.001 millimeter).
According to toxicologist Matthew Campen, PhD, team leader of this study, in normal brains of individuals who died in 2024 aged between 45 to 50 years on average, there were 4,800 micrograms of microplastics per gram, meaning those brains were 0.48% microplastics. This was a 50% increase over what researchers found in the brain tissue of individuals who died in 2016. The majority of these plastics were nanoplastics.
We don’t know much yet about the damage microplastics and nanoplastics cause in the body. But this study did find ten times more plastics in the brains of the twelve individuals in this study who had been diagnosed with dementia. It’s only a correlation, but it certainly is a powerful one.
A 2021 study conducted by a team of researchers from Wageningen University in the Netherlands and published in Environmental Science & Technology estimated that children ingest and inhale an average of 553 microplastics per day, while adults ingest and inhale 883 of such particles.
Microplastics and nanoplastics are everywhere: in our water, food, as well as in the air. We may get contaminated with them through dermal contact too, for instance through contact with clothes with synthetic fibers. They’re even used as microbeads in facial exfoliators.
Once in the body, nanoplastics get sneakier and sneakier.
Many of these plastic specks are usually eliminated in our feces, but nanoplastics can move from the lungs and intestines into the blood, and from there to blood vessels — where they embed themselves in atherosclerotic plaques, increasing the risk of cardiovascular events — and all organs, including the heart and the placenta.
Nanoplastics can also cross the body-brain barrier, which is why we can find them in brain tissue as well. It’s not clear yet whether they move in and out of the brain, or if they just accumulate there.
It could be, for instance, that brains with dementia have trouble expelling them, and so this leads to more nanoplastics accumulation than in normal brains. Either way, the study conducted by Dr. Camden’s team suggests that plenty of them do amass there and may potentially block communication between neurons.
These specks of plastic come with any of some 16,000 chemicals, of which about 1,000 are endocrine-disruptive chemicals (EDCs). EDCs include bisphenols and flame retardants, phthalates, as well as the so-called “forever chemicals,” per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS).
Plastics used in electronics, for instance, have high levels of flame retardants. Sometimes toys and kitchen utensils, among many other items (even necklace beads and hair accessories), are made with these recycled plastics from electronics, continuing the cycle of contamination with these flame retardants.
One study from 2023, funded by Toxic-Free Future, Emory University, and Seattle’s Children Research Institute, published in Environmental Pollution, found brominated flame retardants in breast milk in 100% of the 50 samples from U.S. mothers studied, which is not surprising given the presence of these chemicals in kitchen utensils, as mentioned above.
Flame retardants affect the endocrine, reproduction, and immune systems, and neurodevelopment in utero and in childhood, and can lead to cancer, among other harmful effects.
Things can be improved.
The authors of the above-mentioned study on breast milk note, for example, that some chemicals that had been phased out ten years previously, polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs), showed up much less — 70% less — in the breast milk samples included in the analysis.
The organization Toxic-Free Future also commends the states of New York and Washington for limiting the use of flame retardants. Effective December 1, 2024, the state of New York prohibited intentionally-added flame retardants in upholstered furniture, mattresses, and electronic casings.
Washington state also recently banned intentionally added organohalogen flame retardants in electronic displays and electric and electronic casings intended for indoor use; intentionally added organohalogen flame retardants and organophosphate flame retardants in flooring, mats, and other recreational products made from polyurethane foam; PFAS in carpets and rugs, along with leather and textile furniture and furnishings intended for indoor use, and in some other products, if intentionally added; and other harmful chemicals in various other products.
So I guess the lesson there is to raise awareness and support various organizations and advocacy groups that drive research and policies, such as Toxic-Free Future and Plastic Pollution Coalition.
Plastics are also contaminated with other chemicals, including heavy metals such as mercury and lead compounds. In fact, in the world’s oceans and seas, mercury easily attaches to UV-aged biobased biodegradable plastics, which are then ingested by fish — and by us.
Plastics also carry bacteria. There’s even a name for these bacteria and other microorganisms that live on plastics: plastisphere.
Microplastics, in particular, have been shown to harm the endocrine system in mammals, and, in humans, have been correlated with inflammatory bowel disease, male reproductive issues, heart attacks, and strokes. Studies also suggest they may lead to various cancers.
These nano- and microplastics are everywhere, but there are ways to minimize our exposure to them.
For one, we can stop using plastic in the kitchen. I keep telling my mother not to use plastic cutting boards, and yet she keeps telling me she only uses one to cut bread. Well, yes, but that serrated knife cuts bits of plastic as well.
We can also avoid ordering takeout at home — I do, for the most part, because I don’t want to pollute the environment with extra plastic containers — and go to restaurants of our choice with our own containers.
There are restaurants in Bucharest which offer amazing lunch deals, where you can’t eat everything. Next time I go to one, I’ll carry one of my own containers, which, although they may be made of plastic, are made of better plastic and are also not single-use.
Another food packaging that really bothers me are yogurt buckets, because there’s just So. Much. Plastic. in them. Substances from that plastic leak into the yogurt. I wish I could buy simple yogurt in a glass container. Better yet, it would help to have a milk route available, as they do in the UK, so I could make my own yogurt.
We can fight plastic pollution as well as avoid ingesting added microplastics by carrying a personal glass water bottle. There are plenty of small water bottles around that serve us well if we need to drink some water while outdoors. Of course, if we need more water, we can, by all means, buy some, but if we are out on errands for a short while, we may be able to make do with a bottle from home.
If we’re going hiking and traveling by car, we can take water for our hikes in glass bottles.
Check water filters, too.
But before we get all excited about using filtered water from home everywhere, it’s good to note, along with Mark Taylor, chief environmental scientist at the Environmental Protection Authority in the state of Victoria, Australia, that water filters are also made of plastic. What this means is that in time they, too, will start to leak off particles. So changing those filters often is paramount.
We can also avoid plastic cutlery and single-use plastic plates. I remember eating a taco on a plate instead of in a shell at Taco Bell at a mall in Bucharest, and they gave me plastic flatware. Well, the fork broke. The whole experience was awful because of that plastic, much as I craved the meal. Now I realize I should have brought metal cutlery from home. It’s really not so hard.
Plastic-lined coffee cups, which leak microplastics when in contact with hot liquids, are also easy to avoid by carrying a stainless steel travel mug.
Think twice before buying synthetic clothing.
Synthetic clothes are a monster released on us and the environment. As a health hazard, they can lead to dermatitis, breast cancer, headaches, insomnia, and other issues. Dick Vethaak, PhD, of UV University Amsterdam in the Netherlands recommends using clothes made of natural fibers like cotton or linen.
In terms of environmental cost, consider that much of the microplastic pollution in landfills, bodies of water, and the air comes from washing, discarding, and burning synthetic clothing. Between 16% to 35% of the microplastics that enter the world’s oceans come from washing clothes with synthetic fibers. The latter include polyester and nylon as well as acrylic, fleece, and spandex (a.k.a. elastane or Lycra). Wouldn’t you feel better buying clothes with less of these?
Of course, fewer clothes would be a good idea overall, as the various dyes and other chemicals used heavily pollute the environment. All clothes are incredibly “water-hungry,” meaning they consume a lot of water during each production cycle, from the cotton crops to the factory processes.
Since I started reading about the environmental cost of fashion, I’ve personally shrunk my purchases of clothes to only a few items per year, on average (aside from essentials such as underwear and socks). Even though this may seem, well, unseemly to various people in my life, some of whom encourage me to buy more clothes, I’m fine with that. I’m more than fine with that. In fact, I’m happy.
That said, the work against plastic pollution should begin with interior decoration. As Taylor has researched, our home is where we ingest and inhale the most plastics. As Taylor says, we can buy wool carpets instead of polyester ones. We can avoid plastic plates and cups and other plastic dishware for kids, not to mention plastic cutlery. There are, for instance, bamboo spoons and forks that work just fine, including for kids.
Then there’s the issue of dusting and vacuuming often, since, as Taylor comments, furniture and furnishings shed microplastics. As a side note, there are eco-friendly, sustainable sofas on the market, but they are very expensive.
On an adjacent topic, I’d say we can also avoid microplastics by wearing a mask when dusting in our homes. Many people, including my mother, dust off things like the couch spread on the balcony without wearing a mask, which is not advisable. She inhales much of that dust, microplastics included. Of course, there’s dust in the street, too, but a couch spread is different since people sit on it, including when wearing clothes made of synthetic fibers, which shed microplastics.
Dr. Vethaak also recommends we avoid canned food since the inside of cans contains plastic as well as other harmful chemicals. Like most people, I’m using canned food now and then, but, as a rule, I try to avoid them.
These days I buy my beans in glass jars, for instance, and I stick to cans when I don’t have other alternatives, for example, when I buy sardines for their omega-3 content. Or when the cans contain foods that aren’t available in different packaging, such as sweet corn. But then we’re back to plastic in frozen foods, which is not great — but it’s still probably better than foods that have been subjected to thermic treatment in cans.
I’m sure there are other ways to avoid exposure to microplastics, but here’s one we don’t think of enough: washing hands often, especially before meals. I see so many people these days almost boasting that they don’t need to wash their hands that often, and I admit I never thought of microplastics before in this context, but here it is, a basic form of hygiene that can keep us healthier.
It’s also a good idea to remember, as Dr. Campen reminds us, that toxicity is commensurate with exposure to these microplastics, but that we shouldn’t despair right off the bat. Since we cannot live in an unpolluted environment, we should accept some of this exposure while also doing our best to fight the lifetime accumulation of these specks of plastic and our plastic footprint on the environment.
So yes, the oceans are full of plastics, and our brains are one 200th nanoplastics — and growing. But we can fight it. In fact, more and more people are starting plastic pollution lawsuits. Minding our own homes and our consumption can help a great deal too, as I’ve tried to show in this article.
Thank you for reading! I hope you’ve enjoyed this article. As always, pins and shares are much appreciated!
To a healthier, happier life,
Mira
HappierHealthier.Blog 