When 'fresh air' turns toxic: New data reveal we've been severely underestimating microplastic levels of indoor air
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The key message is robust: Indoor air contains far more inhalable microplastics than we previously thought.
—Angela Haczku, PhD, MD
How safe is the air inside your home?
New research suggests it’s possible for us to inhale 68,000 lung-penetrating microplastics every day in our cars and homes. []
Investigators reported that more than 90% of airborne microplastics found indoors—both in homes and cars—were tiny enough to reach deep into the lungs.
Their study, the first to analyze car interiors, revealed that indoor microplastic levels may be up to 100 times higher than earlier estimates, suggesting that indoor air is a major, previously overlooked source of exposure. []
“Everywhere we look, we find microplastics, even in the air we breathe inside our homes and cars. The biggest concern is how small these particles are completely invisible to the naked eye. We inhale thousands of them every day without even realizing it. Deep inside our lungs, microplastics release toxic additives that reach our blood and cause multiple diseases,” the authors of the research said in a press release. []
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Experts say the findings are worth paying attention to: “An average person breathes 16 times 0.5 [liters of air] a minute. That amounts to 11,000 liters (around 2,750 gallons) [of] air per day... This study was able to measure microplastic particles sized one to 10 µm indoors, using Raman microscopy, combined with prior studies to build a size-distribution model. This way, the authors revealed many more particles than earlier methods could—hence the higher estimate,” Angela Haczku, MD, PhD, director of the UC Davis Lung Center, tells MDLinx.
The exact number, of course, varies by the environment, but the key message is robust: Indoor air contains far more inhalable microplastics than we previously thought.
—Angela Haczku, MD, PhD, director of the UC Davis Lung Center
In the “short term, the lung’s clearance mechanisms and immune cells (alveolar macrophages and dendritic cells) can ingest particles … potentially releasing inflammatory signals in response,” Dr. Haczku adds.
According to Dr. Haczku, long-term or repeated exposure to microplastics could trigger ongoing inflammation and tissue changes that promote fibrosis, especially in people with asthma or COPD. She notes that microplastics can also transport chemicals and pollutants, potentially increasing their toxic effects.
“Over time, and with repeated exposure, retained particles may contribute to persistent inflammation and tissue remodeling that can lead to fibrosis in susceptible persons and worsen conditions, particularly for patients with existing asthma or COPD. We also know microplastics can carry additives and adsorbed pollutants, which could add chemical toxicity,” she says.
Microplastics impact every organ in the human body
Amelia Meyer, MSc, a research program manager and expert in microplastics at Stanford University, says the impacts of microplastics on the human body is significant.
“Microplastics are a source of health concern. They have been found in every organ of the human body, and they have been found to impact certain systems that would lead to deadly diseases and impact the cardiovascular system, inside of our brain, inside of our lungs. [There are also] cancer [and] reproductive impacts as well,” Meyer tells MDLinx.
“They use plastic inside of a lot of newer construction materials, and so a lot of our buildings and houses have plastic inside of the insulation, for example, or the types of materials that they use in carpet, and also some types of floorings. So there's more microplastics inside of a building than you would once maybe think,” she adds.
Related: 8 foods that may reduce the health risks of microplastics and other common toxins