Thread by @NateB_Panic

Breaking: Researchers find that microplastics trigger what they say is a more severe inflammatory response in the human brain than previously thought and call the results "particularly alarming." The average person ingests 70,000 microplastic particles a year🧵

For the first time this study tested microplastic toxicity after the plastics had been exposed to environmental conditions. Previous studies focused on the toxicity of virgin plastics - plastic straight from the factory that hadn't been weathered

The researchers found that the weathering process triggers what they described as a “transformation” that increases the toxicity of microplastics. In rat and human microglia brain cell tests they witnessed inflammatory processes associated with neurodegeneration and cell death

We are ingesting huge amounts of microplastic. Fruits and vegetables are sucking up microplastics through polluted soil. Tap water and irrigation water for agriculture is contaminated by plastic particles, and microplastics are even floating in the air we breathe

The bad news for anyone with a brain is that microplastic pollution is set to skyrocket in the coming years, because the fossil fuel industry is funding a mind-blowing increase in plastic production. Read more:

ko-fi.com/post/Plastic-P…

@konold @KirchnerArctic And in mice "Once in the brain, the scientists found that the particles built up in the microglial cells, which are key to healthy maintenance of the central nervous system." newatlas.com/environment/mi…