As of: March 14, 2024, 3:02 p.m
By: Florian Neuroth
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Microplastics are omnipresent and have also been detected in the human body.
A study from Italy shows what it can do there.
Rome - It is smaller than 5 millimeters, is manufactured artificially and can now be found practically everywhere in nature: microplastic.
Whether in rivers, lakes or the sea, in animals, cosmetic products, our food and therefore also in the body - the solid and hardly biodegradable polymers have been an (undesirable) part of the natural cycle for a long time.
Plastic in food: researchers are worried
Researchers are concerned about this development.
As convenient and efficient as plastic may be, for example as a packaging material, little is often known about its composition and the effects it has on the human body.
A study from Italy now shows that these are by no means positive.
This examined what microplastics do to our colon - with disturbing results.
In water, animals, human blood or stool: microplastics have been detected almost everywhere.
An Italian study now shows how harmful the small particles are for the intestines.
© dpa
Italian researchers demonstrate what microplastics do to the human intestine
The Italian broadcaster Rai reports on this.
Accordingly, a team of researchers led by Dr.
Daniela Gaglio from the National Research Council (CNR) experimentally demonstrated that colon cells showed a change in metabolism and an increase in oxidative stress after exposure to polystyrene particles.
Polystyrene is a plastic with a variety of uses.
It can be found in packaging, toys, as insulating material or in its best-known form: foamed as Styrofoam.
“The study shows that micro- and nanoparticles made of polystyrene, which are absorbed by human colon cells, trigger changes in metabolism that are similar to those of the toxic active ingredient azoxymethane,”
Rai
quotes the scientist as saying.
Azoxymethane is a carcinogenic and neurotoxic molecule “that has been widely studied precisely because of its ability to trigger colon cancer,” says Gaglio.
Up to 5 grams of microplastics per week: “Almost as much as a credit card,” says researcher
The study is also worrying because microplastics in the body are no exception.
Nowadays, people naturally ingest small plastic particles through food or other means - up to five grams per week on a global average, according to the environmental organization WWF.
“Almost as much as a credit card,” says Gaglio.
In 2019, researchers from Vienna detected the tiny plastic particles in stool for the first time, and in 2022, Dutch scientists succeeded in doing so in human blood.
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As the Fraunhofer Institute demonstrated in 2018, 330,000 tons of microplastics enter the environment every year in Germany alone - a third through tire wear.
Rainwater flushes the particles further into the sewer system or directly into bodies of water.
The EU has therefore recently largely banned microplastics.
In the future, products that have microplastics added to them or that release microplastics during use will no longer be allowed to be sold.
These include peelings, toys or softeners.
The ban affects all synthetic polymer particles in a size range of less than five millimeters that are organic, insoluble and difficult to degrade.
Altered metabolism and more oxidative stress caused by microplastics in the intestine, study shows
As the Italian study shows, the EU is not acting without reason.
According to Rai, one of the findings is that healthy human colon cells responded to both acute and chronic contact with polystyrene particles: with altered metabolism and increased oxidative stress.
The latter means a state of metabolism with too many free radicals - reactive oxygen atoms that steal electrons from other atoms and can arise from inflammation within the body or from harmful environmental influences such as cigarette smoke.
According to the IMD Institute for Medical Diagnostics Berlin-Potsdam, free radicals are said to be partly responsible for various diseases such as Parkinson's or Alzheimer's, accelerate processes such as aging and also contribute to the development of cancer.
Micro- and nanoplastics a possible risk factor for colon cancer, say researchers
According to the Rai report, contact with plastic in the colon leads to changes that typically occur in cancer formations.
This suggests a possible effect of micro- and nanoplastics as a risk factor for colon cancer.
Researcher Gaglio points out: “This is one of the few studies so far that provides information about what effect plastic could have on our organism.”
But it probably won't be the last.
Microplastics were only recently detected in chewing gum - with clear warnings from a gastroenterologist.
The tiny particles could attack the mucous layer in the intestine and, in the worst case, dissolve it.
The possible consequences are unpleasant.
The expert mentioned diarrhea, flatulence, fatigue or inflammation in the intestines.
(Florian Neuroth)