The disputed ‘spoonful of plastic in your brain’ study
A Nature Medicine paper reported plastic in every brain tested, rising over time, but its method and headline figure are strongly contested.
Scientists
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Plastic detected in almost every human brain sample, at much lower levels
A 2026 study found micro- and nanoplastics in all 35 healthy brain samples and in 99.4% of samples from people with brain tumours.
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Microplastic fibres found deep inside living human lungs
UK surgeons and scientists found microplastics in 11 of 13 lung tissue samples, including the deepest regions of the lung.
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Bottled water contains around 240,000 plastic particles per litre
Columbia researchers used a new imaging method to count nanoplastics in bottled water and found roughly ten times more particles than earlier estimates.
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Indoor air delivers about 68,000 lung-penetrating plastic particles a day
French researchers found the air in homes and cars carries far more fine microplastic than earlier estimates, roughly 100 times higher.
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Lancet Countdown: plastics cost more than US$1.5 trillion a year in health damage
The Lancet’s new annual tracker calls plastics a grave, growing and under-recognised danger to human and planetary health.
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Minderoo-Monaco Commission: plastics harm health at every stage of their life
The first full-lifecycle medical review found plastics cause disease from oil extraction through manufacturing, use and disposal.
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One plastic chemical linked to 356,000 heart-disease deaths a year
New York University (NYU) researchers estimate the plasticiser di(2-ethylhexyl) phthalate (DEHP) was linked to 13.5% of all cardiovascular deaths among 55–64-year-olds worldwide in 2018.
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Heart patients with plastic in their arteries had 4.5 times the risk of death or stroke
A NEJM study found microplastics in 58% of artery plaques, and those patients suffered far more heart attacks, strokes and deaths over three years.
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Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD): the world used 460 million tonnes of plastic in 2019 and recycled 9%
The OECD’s Global Plastics Outlook is the most authoritative single dataset on the plastics economy, showing waste growing faster than recycling.