3 surprising ways microplastics can enter your body
Microplastics enter our bodies through air, skin, and food/drink, with ingestion being the most common route. Once inside, these particles trigger chronic inflammation and carry over 16,000 chemicals that can disrupt hormones and cause various health problems. While individual actions can help reduce exposure, solving this widespread contamination requires large-scale legislative solutions.
Summary
Microplastics infiltrate our bodies through three primary pathways: inhalation, skin absorption, and ingestion, with the latter being the most significant source. These particles are ubiquitous in our environment, found in processed foods, seafood, meat, produce, and drinking water, with a single liter of bottled water containing over 200,000 particles. Plastic packaging, storage containers, cutting boards, and Teflon cookware all contribute to contamination, with microwaving plastic containers being particularly problematic as it can release millions of particles. Urban and indoor environments contain higher concentrations of airborne particles, though most people inhale tens of thousands daily regardless of location. Personal care products also allow plastics and chemicals to penetrate skin barriers. Once in the body, nanoplastics can pass through cell membranes and settle in tissues throughout the body, including the liver, spleen, muscles, bones, and brain. The immune system recognizes these as foreign invaders and triggers inflammatory responses, but since the body cannot break down plastic, this inflammation becomes chronic and can cause widespread damage, particularly affecting respiratory function and contributing to conditions like asthma and pneumonia. Beyond the particles themselves, plastics carry over 16,000 production chemicals into the body, most with unknown health impacts. Endocrine disrupting chemicals like phthalates, PFAS, and BPA are particularly concerning, as they alter hormonal activity and can increase obesity and diabetes risk, disrupt reproductive health, and affect sexual development. These chemicals have been linked to declining sperm counts globally and can impact fetal development, with effects potentially manifesting years later in puberty timing. While the body accumulates plastic faster than it can excrete it and no medical interventions exist for removal, individuals can reduce exposure by choosing natural fiber clothing, replacing plastic kitchen items with wood, steel, or glass alternatives, avoiding single-use plastics, and buying fresh, unpackaged foods. However, addressing this pervasive problem ultimately requires legislative action at multiple levels to regulate plastic production and use.
About this episode
Explore how the microplastics in your body can affect your health, and how we can regulate the amount of plastic in our world. -- Plastic is everywhere. It’s in our clothes, our food, the air we breathe. And plastic is now also in our bodies. Micro and nanoplastics generally enter our bodies in one of three ways: the air, our skin, and what we eat and drink. But how exactly do these microscopic particles affect our health? Dig into how they can interrupt your body’s processes, and how we can begin to fix our plastic problem. Directed by Vicente Nirõ, AIM Creative Studios. This video made possible in collaboration with the Oceanic Preservation Society Learn more about how TED-Ed partnerships work: https://bit.ly/TEDEdPartner Support Our Non-Profit Mission ---------------------------------------------- Support us on Patreon: http://bit.ly/TEDEdPatreon Check out our merch: http://bit.ly/TEDEDShop ---------------------------------------------- Connect With Us ---------------------------------------------- Sign up for our newsletter: http://bit.ly/TEDEdNewsletter Follow us on Facebook: http://bit.ly/TEDEdFacebook Find us on Twitter: http://bit.ly/TEDEdTwitter Peep us on Instagram: http://bit.ly/TEDEdInstagram ---------------------------------------------- Keep Learning ---------------------------------------------- View full lesson: https://ed.ted.com/lessons/3-surprising-ways-microplastics-can-enter-your-body Dig deeper with additional resources: https://ed.ted.com/lessons/3-surprising-ways-microplastics-can-enter-your-body/digdeeper Animator's website: https://aimcreativestudios.com ---------------------------------------------- Thank you so much to our patrons for your support! Without you this video would not be possible! Doreen Reynolds-Consolati, Manognya Chakrapani, Ayala Ron, Eunsun Kim, Phyllis Dubrow, Ophelia Gibson Best, Paul Schneider, Joichiro Yamada, Henrique Cassús, Karthik Cherala, Clarence E. Harper Jr., Vignan Velivela, Ana Maria, Exal Enrique Cisneros Tuch, Tejas Dc, Khalifa Alhulail, Martin Stephen, Jose Henrique Leopoldo e Silva, Mandeep Singh, Abhijit Kiran Valluri, Morgan Williams, Devin Harris, Pavel Zalevskiy, Karen Goepen-Wee, Filip Dabrowski, Barbara Smalley, Megan Douglas, Tim Leistikow, Ka-Hei Law, Hiroshi Uchiyama, Mark Morris, Misaki Sato, EdoKun, SookKwan Loong, Bev Millar, Lex Azevedo, Michael Aquilina, Jason A Saslow, Yansong Li, Cristóbal Moenne, Dawn Jordan, Prasanth Mathialagan, Samuel Doerle, David Rosario, Dominik Kugelmann - they-them, Siamak Hajizadeh, Ryohky Araya, Mayank Kaul, Christophe Dessalles, and Heather Slater.
Key Insights
- Microwaving food in plastic storage containers can release millions of particles into leftovers
- Inflammation from plastic particles brings increased blood flow to tissues, which plastics use to spread throughout the body to organs including the liver, spleen, muscles, bones, and brain
- Research suggests endocrine disrupting chemicals from plastics have contributed to the global decline in sperm count over the past 50 years
Topics
Transcript
[0:07] Plastic is everywhere. It’s in our clothes, our food— even the air we breathe. So, it’s no surprise that plastic is also in our bodies. But how exactly do these microscopic particles affect our health? Micro and nanoplastics generally enter our bodies in one of three ways: through the air, through our skin, and most commonly, through what we eat and drink. While processed foods have the most plastic, [0:40] particles have infiltrated our farms and seas, making their way into most seafood, meat, and produce. Plastic packaging sheds particles into whatever it touches— a single liter of bottled water can contain over 200,000 of them. Even metal cans and paper wrappers often hide plastic linings. At home, particles…
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