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Toxic Effect of Food-Borne Microplastics on Human Health
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This review compiles evidence that people ingest thousands of microplastic particles annually through everyday foods including drinking water, salt, fish, tea, and milk, and that these particles can cause cytotoxicity, inflammation, hormone disruption, and even neurotoxicity in experimental models. Microplastics can cross the gut lining and enter the circulatory system, potentially affecting organs throughout the body. The paper serves as a comprehensive summary of the known and suspected human health risks from food-borne microplastic exposure.
Microplastics (MPs) are defined as an assorted combination of plastic particles less than 5 mm having shapes such as fragments, fibers, spheroids, granules, pellets, flakes, or beads. Recent health risk assessment reports have revealed that an individual consumes nearly thousands of MP particles yearly through foods such as drinking water, salt, sugar, fish, tea, milk, etc., which is alarming for human health. This chapter is aimed at reviewing the health effects of microplastic ingestion through food. Cytotoxicity, oxidative stress, translocation through the circulatory system, inflammation, disruption in metabolism, neurotoxicity, and reproductive toxicity are the major human health impacts associated with MP consumption. The entering of MPs through the human food chain and possible sources of MP contamination in foods have been highlighted, followed by a brief description of biological findings among several organs that has also been explained here. The use of bio-degradable plastics in food packaging can be considered a suitable way to minimize microplastics at present.
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Microplastics smaller than 5 millimeters are entering our food through drinking water, salt, seafood, packaged food, and even alcoholic beverages. Once consumed, these particles have been detected in human blood, feces, breast milk, liver, and other tissues, showing they can accumulate throughout the body. Emerging evidence links microplastic exposure to inflammation, oxidative stress, gut problems, brain effects, reproductive harm, and cardiovascular risks.
Potential risk assessment and toxicological impacts of nano/micro-plastics on human health through food products
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This review examined the potential risks and toxicological effects of nano- and microplastics on human health through food products, identifying key contamination sources in the food chain and their harmful impacts on the body.
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This review examines how microplastics enter the human body through food, air, and skin, and have been detected in stool, blood, and tissues. Research in lab animals and human cells shows that microplastics can disrupt digestion, immunity, the nervous system, and reproduction, and can also amplify the toxicity of other environmental pollutants they carry.
Microplastics in Drinking Water and Food: a Threat to Human Health
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This study reviews the primary exposure pathways through which microplastics and nanoplastics enter the human body—via drinking water, food, air, and household sources—and examines their toxic mechanisms across the digestive, respiratory, cardiovascular, reproductive, and immune systems.
Potential Health Impact of Microplastics: A Review of Environmental Distribution, Human Exposure, and Toxic Effects
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This review summarizes existing research on how microplastics are found throughout the environment and in human samples, entering the body through food, air, and skin contact. Lab studies in cells and animals show microplastics can cause oxidative stress, DNA damage, immune reactions, brain toxicity, and reproductive harm, and early human health data links microplastic exposure to several chronic diseases.
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