Category Archives: Microplastics & Environmental Health

Micro- and nanoplastics (MPs/NPs) have emerged as pervasive environmental contaminants with increasing implications for human health, particularly within the digestive system. This review critically examines the role of MPs/NPs as disruptors of gastrointestinal and liver homeostasis through the lens of the plastic-gut-liver axis. We synthesize current evidence on primary exposure routes-including ingestion, inhalation, dermal contact, and transplacental transfer-and highlight their intestinal…

The development of new materials that are inherently safe and sustainable has become a critical objective in the context of the green transition. This challenge is especially significant for plastics, which often contain complex mixtures of chemicals that may be released during various stages of their life cycle and that can pose risks to human health and the environment. Within this context, the Safe and Sustainable by Design (SSbD) framework was followed to support the design of an innovative…

CONCLUSION: Our results indicate low-dose PS-NPs can activate the AMPK pathway and lipophagy, thereby alleviating liver injury through a stress adaptation response under high-fat diet conditions. Our findings elucidate the context-dependent interaction between microplastics and dietary patterns in liver diseases development and provide novel insights into the health effects of microplastics.

Recent reports from worldwide reveal that micro/nanoplastics (MNPs) are pervasive pollutants affecting all ecosystems and a wide range of organisms, including animals, plants, fish, humans, and microorganisms. MNPs have been detected in food items, mother milk, vegetables, and other consumable products, indicating their potential to impact organisms across all life stages. These particles can enter the body through inhalation, ingestion, and dermal contact. Due to their small size,…

Human exposure to micro- and nanoplastics (MNPs) in the environment and their potential health effects are of growing public interest. Regarding water, that interest grows because multiple studies found MNPs in different matrices including tap and bottled water. We intended to (i) understand how MNPs enter freshwater systems and drinkable water, (ii) assess the evidence of human exposure to MNPs in water, and (iii) identify data gaps to support the determination of potential health effects. We…

Nanoplastics are ubiquitous by-products of global plastic production and have emerged as a potentially consequential yet insufficiently defined threat to health. Recent studies have revealed that these synthetic particulates can cross the blood-brain barrier, accelerate amyloid aggregation, impair microglial clearance, hijack the gut-liver-brain axis, and drive neuroinflammation-mechanisms central to neurodegeneration in Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s disease. In addition, anionic nanoplastics can…

Nanoplastics may threaten human health, most current toxicological studies focus on polystyrene, but no study on polypropylene (PP) in plastic bottled injections for medical care. Based on the amount of nanoplastic from PP-bottled injections introduced by intravenous infusion average daily in infants (31.5 ng) and adolescents (157.5 ng), we explored the toxicological effects of PP-NPs on the organ development of zebrafish. We also investigated the toxicological effects in mice of PP-NPs at doses…