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Global ecological analysis of dietary microplastic exposure and lip and oral cavity cancer incidence: analysis code and data
Summary
Researchers looked at whether countries with higher estimated microplastic exposure from food and drinks also had higher rates of lip and mouth cancer, comparing data across 106 countries. This type of study can only show whether a pattern exists across populations—it can't prove that microplastics actually cause this cancer in individuals, so more targeted research is needed before drawing firm conclusions. Still, it adds to growing questions about how the microplastics in our food and water might affect long-term health.
Analysis code and the harmonised country-level dataset for an ecological study of the association between estimated dietary microplastic exposure and age-standardized lip and oral cavity cancer incidence across 106 countries. The pipeline fits an adjusted ordinary least squares model with a restricted cubic spline for microplastic exposure, evaluates residual spatial autocorrelation (Moran's I), runs Anselin's Lagrange multiplier tests, and fits spatial lag, spatial error and spatial Durbin models, followed by sensitivity analyses. See README.md for the run order and data provenance.