microplastic particles taken in per person per year
People ingest 39,000–52,000 microplastic particles a year through food and drink, rising to 74,000–121,000 when breathing is included.
Global
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of heart patients had microplastics in their artery plaque
Patients with plastic in their arterial plaque had 4.5 times the risk of death, heart attack or stroke over the following three years.
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of placentas tested contained microplastics
All 62 placentas analysed contained measurable plastic, at 6.5 to 790 micrograms per gram of tissue.
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of people tested had plastic in their blood
In the first study to measure plastic in human blood, 17 of 22 healthy adults had detectable particles.
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plastic chemicals classed as ‘of concern’
About 26% of known plastic chemicals are of concern. They last a long time in the environment, build up in living things, spread easily…
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chemicals used in plastics
PlastChem identified 16,325 chemicals in plastics; more than 4,200 are of concern and fewer than 6% are regulated internationally.
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Plastic bottles and caps overtake cigarette butts as the top beach litter
Ocean Conservancy’s 40th International Coastal Cleanup logged 1.3 million plastic bottles and 886,000 caps in a single year.
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People swallow and breathe in up to 121,000 microplastic particles a year
The first systematic estimate of human microplastic intake found tens of thousands of particles a year, far more for people who drink only bottled…
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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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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.