NEW: Researchers find microplastics in human brains.
Moreover, shards of microplastics in autopsied brain tissue increased between samples collected in 2016 vs. 2024.
Frontal cortex tissue (executive function, learning & memory, judgement...) concentrations were 7-30x those previously found in livers & kidneys.
Incredibly alarming potential implications for #AlzheimersDisease, dementia, blood brain barrier health etc.
Caveats: early days in methodology for spotting & characterizing these particle loads & understanding their impacts on brain health.
And that's just focusing on the physical particles.
There's a whole second disturbing tier of questions around what potentially toxic compounds like plasticizers will leach from #microplastics, especially as the particle size gets smaller.
2/ There doesn't appear to be a place on earth that hasn't got a microplastics load.
Dust in the atmosphere? Yep. The ocean? Yep. Creatures in it? Yep. Ocean breezes by the seashore? Yep.
Now our brains.
It's like the radioisotopes from atmospheric nuclear testing. Only there's no test ban in sight, and more are pouring into the ecosystem with every moment.
But the impact on us and our world are shockingly ill- understood.