A Spoon-Sized Amount of Plastic Could Be in Your Brain, New Study Finds: 'Alarming'

Mar. 15, 2025

Close up side shot of microplastics lay on people hand.Photo:Getty

Getty

Researchers have found there’s a spoon-sized amount of microplastics in the human brain.

And to clarify — that’s not a spoonful: It’s enough microplastics to form an actual plastic spoon.

The alarming data comes from a new study, published inNature, where researchers examined cadaver brains and found an increase in microplastics than they were seeing less than a decade ago.

“Compared to autopsy brain samples from 2016, that’s about 50% higher,”  co-lead study author Matthew Campen, Regents’ Professor and professor of pharmaceutical sciences at the University of New Mexico in Albuquerque, said, according toCNN. “That would mean that our brains today are 99.5% brain and the rest is plastic.”

The presence of plastic was increased in the brains of those who’d been diagnosed with dementia before their death — a statistic Campen calls “alarming” but said couldn’t yet be pinpointed as a cause of dementia.

Researchers have been calling for more urgent and actionable measures to reduce plastic pollution after several studies detected tiny microplastics (typically around 5mm in diameter) in a wide range of human organs, including the lungs, reproductive organs, liver, kidneys,knee and elbow joints, blood vessels andbone marrow.

“It is now imperative to declare a global emergency” about the growing rate of plastic pollution, saidSedat Gündoğdu, who studies microplastics at Cukurova University in Turkey, perThe Guardian.

Microplastics or tiny plastic particles in a glass of water.pcess609/Getty

pcess609/Getty

While the exact health consequences in humans are not yet fully known, studies have found that microplastics can lead tooxidative stress, which can result in cell damage, inflammation, orcardiovascular disease.

And through recent animal studies, researchers have discovered that microplastics can also causefertility issues,impaired learning and memory, various cancers, and a disrupted endocrine and immune system. The apparent build-up of the tiny pieces in multiple human organs is “scary,” said Bethanie Carney Almroth, an ecotoxicologist at the University of Gothenburg in Sweden,The Guardian.

Concerns have grown since theNational Institutes of Healthpublished a study in May finding that, on average, 91 brain samples contained roughly 10 to 20 times more than other organs (e.g., the liver and kidneys), making the brain “one of the most plastic-polluted tissues yet sampled."

The study’s lead author was also Matthew Campen who said, “There’s much more plastic in our brains than I ever would have imagined or been comfortable with.”

“I don’t know how much more plastic our brain can stuff in without it causing some problems,” Campen added.

Macro shot on a bunch of microplastics that cannot be recycled.Svetlozar Hristov/Getty

Svetlozar Hristov/Getty

Additionally, in a July 2024Journal of Hazardous Materials study, microplastics were found in all 16 of the bone marrow samples examined. Each sample contained polystyrene — the plastic used to pack peanuts and electronics — and almost all contained polyethylene, which is used for clear food wrap and detergent bottles.

Similarly, microplastics were found in all 45 samples for a study examining patients withknee or hip surgery.

Yet anotherstudyexamined 312 patients who had fatty deposits, or plaques, removed from their carotid arteries. Of those, almost 60% of the samples contained microplastics — and those subjects were 2.1 times more likely to experience a heart attack, stroke, or die.

Microplastics on hand.Getty

Never miss a story — sign up forPEOPLE’s free daily newsletterto stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer​​, from celebrity news to compelling human interest stories.

At this time, the United States does not have established government standards for plastic particles in food or water. However, theEnvironmental Protection Agencyis outlining guidelines for measuring them and, since 2018, has issued grants to help researchers develop new ways to efficiently detect and quantify microplastics.

TheFood and Drug Administration said in a statement: “Current scientific evidence does not demonstrate that levels of microplastics or nanoplastics detected in foods pose a risk to human health.”

TheUnited Nations Environment Assemblyhas begun creating a global treaty to end plastic pollution across the world.

source: people.com