Microplastic pollution is a growing concern. It can affect the environment, animals, and people. The University of Cincinnati received a $3.3 million grant to study the effects of microplastic on the human heart.
is a professor in the Department of Pharmacology, Physiology and Neurobiology, and the lead researcher in this study. He tells WYSO鈥檚 Mike Frazier how microplastics accumulate in the cardiovascular system.
Wang starts our conversation by saying that microplastics have been detected in the arterial plaque of some patients.
This transcript was lightly edited for clarity.
Hong-Sheng Wang: And the higher the level of microplastics in the plaque, the higher the likelihood of downstream cardiovascular events, such as heart attack and mortality.
Mike Frazier: Okay, so does that mean that if somebody has a buildup of cholesterol in their cardiovascular system, it could be aggravated by microplastics?
Wang: There are a number of ways that microplastics, when they are present in the plaque, can, for instance, destabilize the plaque. But we are at a very early stage of microplastic research, and this is partly where our project comes in.
Frazier: So how do microplastics and nanoplastics get into the body?
Wang: So the major exposure route is through ingestion - through foods, through water, through beverage. And a second route of exposure is inhalation. Because they are really tiny particles - we're talking about microplastic - they can be suspended in the air, and we just breathe them in. So inhalation exposure.
Frazier: So tiny plastics are actually in the air and we breathe it in and it gets into our bodies that way? I didn't know that.
Wang: Yes, it's crazy, isn't it? So they're basically like dust because they are really, really small. They're not like bits and pieces that you can see. They can be suspended in the air and that's where inhalation exposure comes in. But the major route is ingestion through foods, through beverages and water.
Frazier: When someone consumes microplastics, does the body not filter it out, say through the digestive system or the urinary tract? Is it so small that it just actually gets into our bloodstream?
Wang: That's an excellent question. The larger particles basically travel right through us. You basically find plastics in just about everybody you look at. So then people realize, wow, there's such common exposure. So that's the bigger pieces that will just go back to us. But the smaller pieces can enter the body, enter the blood circulation, and get distributed in various tissues, including the heart. And another site where we'll demonstrate those microplastic exposure is the brain, and even inside cells where they can cause potential damage.
Frazier: So the microplastics can actually be inside cells?
Wang: Yeah, it's pretty crazy stuff, isn't it?
Frazier: Wow, this is more intense than I thought it would be.
Wang: There are certain steps that individuals can take to reduce, not to eliminate, but reduce exposure to microplastics simply based on what we know about human exposure to plastics.
For instance, I try to reduce the number of plasticware in my kitchen, I do not use a plastic cutting board. I use a wood or bamboo cutting board. I definitely do not heat food in a plastic container in a microwave. If you heat up the plastics, it will release even more microplastics. And I drink tap water instead of bottled water because the study showed that the level of microplastic in bottled water can be quite a bit higher than straight tap water.
You can get a good quality water filtration system - that's even better. So that's the kind of common sense steps that we can take. Because we're really talking about exposure to environmental pollutants that's present on a very large scale. And the plastic is produced in vast quantities and widely present in the environment. So there's only so much an individual can do. To truly address this question, it will take the action of the community, and the society.
Wang said that the study is funded for five years, but their research into microplastic effects on people will continue after the five-year funding period.