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A study conducted on mice found that tiny “nanoparticles” of plastic that drift around every surface and substance in our world can be transferred from a mother’s body to her fetus’s brain, heart, or lungs.
We do not know exactly how these small pieces of garbage affect human health, but we do know that humans eat and breathe them.
And late last year, scientists discovered that plastic nanoparticles could enter the human placenta – the sac rich in oxygen and nutrients in which a fetus grows.
The new study, conducted by Rutgers University scientists, is the first to show that particles can not only settle in the placenta, but can pass through this sac to the developing fetus.
The pups of mice in the study were found to contain these plastic bits in many organs, from their brains to their livers and hearts.
After exposure to particles, known as microplastics, in the womb, mice gained less weight at a critical stage in their development.
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Scientists do not yet know whether the particles are transferred from the mother to the fetus in the same way in humans, or if they get stuck in the organs and interfere with weight gain.
But besides the discovery of the placenta in the placenta in December 2020, it’s definitely cause for further study and some concern, Rutgers scientists say.
Microplastics are an exotic by-product of modern manufacturing and the resilience of plastics. By design, the plastic is difficult to destroy, making it durable on a scale most organic materials cannot match.
This is why plastic is used in everything from toys to medical tools.
Scientists have not yet been able to track any specific health problems of microplastics in drinking water, for example.
We know that plastic contains a number of chemicals that may be harmful to human health, in high enough doses, including phthalates and bisphenols, which may disrupt hormones and reduce fertility.
Children consume fine plastic shards from milk bottles.
Scientists have already discovered that these plastics can cross the effective blood-brain barrier.
The exact effects are also not known, but the brain tissue is extremely sensitive, so the presence of a foreign body there is especially worrisome.
Scientists simulated the consumption of microplastics by placing plastic pellets in the trachea of pregnant rats. Phoebe Stapleton, lead author of the study, told the Guardian that these particles were only about 60 percent of the plastic the average woman ingested in a single day.
Within 90 minutes, the small pieces of plastic crossed the placenta.
During this critical period, the developing mouse embryos weighed seven percent less than the healthy mice.
Using a special kind of microscope, scientists can see the plastic materials as small white spots in the liver, lungs, kidneys, brain and hearts of mouse embryos, indicating that they are scattered throughout their small bodies.
“This study answers some questions and poses other questions,” said Stapleton. “We now know that the molecules are able to cross into the embryo compartment, but we don’t know if they are settled there or the body just isolated them, so there is no additional toxicity.”
Source: Daily Mail
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