Canberra, Australia

A recent study published in the journal Physics of Fluids found that humans might be inhaling as much as 16.2 bits of microplastics every hour which amounts to a credit card’s worth of the potentially toxic substance clogging the human respiratory system, in a week. This comes as scientists raised an alarm about microplastics being detected in human blood, breast milk and even drinking water and food. 

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What did the study find?

The study was conducted by several scientists from universities in Australia using a computer model which they created to analyse microplastic transport and deposition in the upper airway. Over the years, microplastic has been defined as tiny chunks of less than five millimetres long pieces of plastic and microfibres from clothes which get caught in the Earth’s atmosphere. 

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The model used for the study is said to have provided effective predictions for other forms of particles for decades now. The research found that the largest microplastics tested for this study, which was 5.56 microns, got stuck in the upper airways, nasal cavity or the back of the throat. 

However, it was not just the size but also the shape of the particle which influenced where it was deposited. The model also tested the movement of microplastics based on shapes spherical, tetrahedral and cylindrical as well as under slow and fast breathing conditions. 

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The researchers found that the deposition rate was dependent mostly on breathing conditions and particle size. An increased air flow rate led to less deposition while the largest microplastics were deposited in the airways more often than their smaller counterparts (1.6 and 2.56 microns). 

“The complicated and highly asymmetric anatomical shape of the airway and complex flow behaviour in the nasal cavity and oropharynx causes the microplastics to deviate from the flow pathline and deposit in those areas,” said the study co-author Mohammad S Islam, University of Technology Sydney, in a statement. 

He added, “The flow speed, particle inertia, and asymmetric anatomy influence the overall deposition and increase the deposition concentration in nasal cavities and the oropharynx area.”

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Should we be concerned?

Speaking about why they decided to do this study, Islam said, “For the first time, in 2022, studies found microplastics deep in human airways, which raises the concern of serious respiratory health hazards.” 

This comes as millions of tons of these microplastic particles have been found in water, air, and soil and with global microplastic production surging, the density of microplastics in the air is also “increasing significantly,” said the author from the University of Technology Sydney. 

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Researchers have also said that they hope that the findings of this study can help with targeted drug delivery devices and improve health risk assessment as they have highlighted the “real concern” of exposure to and inhalation of microplastics. 

“This study emphasises the need for greater awareness of the presence and potential health impacts of microplastics in the air we breathe,” said another author of the study, YuanTong Gu. 

However, there is very little known about the effects of microplastics on human health. While we have already seen the effect it has on marine life, the same cannot be said for humans, previous studies have suggested. 

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