Researchers at the Cleveland Clinic—an American research and medical center—have found that plastic microplastics that enter human arteries increase the risk of heart attack and stroke.
The results of this study were published in the New England Journal of Medicine.
Microplastics are small—typically less than five millimeters in size—plastic particles that enter the environment from a variety of sources, including cosmetics, clothing and industrial processes, and are also formed when larger plastic particles break down. They can enter the human body also through breathing, eating, and drinking.
Scientists have found that the entry of such particles into the ventricles, which supply blood and oxygen to the brain, can considerably increase the risk of heart attack and stroke. This became clear by studying the structure and composition of plaques surgically removed from these pairs of vessels from 257 people.
Researchers found that people with evidence of microplastics in their lungs had a four-fold increased risk of heart attack and stroke after surgery.
The scientists found as well more evidence of inflammation in people with pieces of plastic in their blood vessels.
According to the study authors, however, these findings do not prove that plastic particles cause strokes and heart attacks, but the toxins contained in them can cause events that contribute to the development of atherosclerosis.