It’s Already Inside Us
Microplastics are not just an environmental problem affecting nature. They’re in our blood [1], lungs [2], placentas [3], brains [4], and breast milk [5]. Every human tissue scientists have tested so far has come back contaminated. In diseased tissue samples of people with chronic illnesses (IBD [6], Dementia [7], heart disease [8]), microplastic prevalence is significantly higher than healthy tissue.

The Trajectory Is Clear
Every new study finds higher microplastic concentrations in human tissue than the last. Most recently, we found a 50% increase in brain tissue microplastic prevalence over the past 8 years [9]. The burden on the human body is compounding: what we take in today stays with us for decades, and future generations are born contaminated. That’s not even mentioning nanoplastics, which we weren’t able to detect until 10 years ago [10].

What the Mice Tell Us
Mice exposed to higher doses of microplastics develop gut inflammation [11], hormone disruption [12], infertility [13], developmental delays [14], and organ damage [15]. The doses they are tested with are higher than ours… for now. But the global plastic load is increasing exponentially, and the gap is closing.

Humans Can’t Afford 1% of That
Even a fraction of the effects we induce in mice appearing in people is a global health crisis. That’s not hypothetical; our tolerance for risk is far lower than a lab rat. Mice don’t need to perform demanding physical and cognitive tasks 40 hours a week to survive. The accumulation math is also worse: mice don’t live 80 years, don’t have pregnancies lasting nine months, and don’t accumulate microplastics for decades. We do.

Waiting for government intervention before acting is the same mistake we made with lead, asbestos, and PFAS. Let’s not do that again.