Risk Assessment of Microplastics in Humans: Distribution, Exposure, and Toxicological Effects

Microplastics are widely present in the environment, and their potential risks to human health have attracted increasing attention. Research on microplastics has exhibited exponential growth since 2014, with a fast-growing focus on human health risks. Keyword co-occurrence networks indicate a research shift from environmental pollution toward human exposure and health effects. Additionally, Trend Factor analysis reveals emerging research topics such as reproductive toxicity, neurotoxicity, and impacts on gut microbiota. This meta-analysis included 125 studies comprising 2977 data samples. The results demonstrated that cytotoxicity in experimental systems was primarily concentrated in Grade I (non-toxic, 62.8%) and Grade II (mildly toxic, 27.6%). Notably, inhibitory effects on cells were significantly enhanced when microplastic concentrations exceeded 40 μg/mL or particle sizes were smaller than 0.02 μm. The Gradient Boosting Decision Tree (GBDT) model was applied to predict cell viability, achieving an R² value of 0.737 for the test set and a classification accuracy of 81.5%. Furthermore, reproductive- and circulatory-system cells exhibited the highest sensitivity to microplastics, whereas connective-tissue cells had the lowest survival rates. The study also identified an overuse of polystyrene (PS) polymers and spherical particles in experimental designs, deviating from realistic exposure scenarios.