Social media users misrepresent US study on microplastic in human bloodstream

"US researcher reveals microplastics from microwaved food found in human blood!" reads Thai-language text in an image attached to a Facebook post published on September 11, 2023.

The post's captions go on to claim "77 percent of those tested were found to have microplastics in their blood".

"Some cases have up to four million microplastics and over two billion nanoplastics," it adds.

It says this could pose a risk to the kidneys because "75 percent of kidney cells are destroyed upon contact with microplastics".

The post contains a link to a media report by Thai outlet Kapook (archived here).

The report in turn links to a US study titled: "Assessing the release of microplastics and nanoplastics from plastic containers and reusable food pouches: Implications for human health" (archived here).

Image

A screenshot of the false post, captured on September 25, 2023

Similar false posts about the US study can be found elsewhere on Facebook including here, here and here.

However, one of the study's authors -- Kazi Albab Hussain, a researcher from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln -- told AFP the study did not investigate the level of microplastic in the bloodstream.

He told AFP on September 25 that the study looked into the release of microplastics and nanoplastics under different user scenarios such as microwave heating, refrigeration storage and room temperature storage.

Researchers found plastic containers released microplastics and nanoplastics into deionised water and three percent acetic acid, which was used as food simulants.

But Hussain said the study "did not test microplastics and nanoplastics content in human bloodstream".

Tested outside human body

The claim that 77 percent of test subjects were found to have microplastic particles in their bloodstream was wrongly attributed to the US study.

AFP found the number was in fact taken from a study by researchers at the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam in May 2022, which did not specify whether the particles came from eating food microwaved in plastic containers (archived link).

Lukas Kenner, a professor at the Department of Pathology at the Medical University of Vienna, told AFP that microparticles -- including microplastics -- have been shown to "pass from the intestines into the blood and potentially into other organs through the intestinal or other organ barriers".

He is one of the authors of a study in 2023 that found nanometre-sized polystyrene particles in the brains of mice within two hours after they were fed water that contained the particles (archived link).

He went on to highlight another study in 2017 where microplastics were found to have accumulated in the liver, kidney and gut of mice that were fed water mixed with the plastics (archived link).

However, he also said the findings were "based on test-tube studies" -- meaning they were not conducted in human bodies.