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Understanding the Nexus Between Microplastics and Human Health: A Narrative Review
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This narrative review synthesizes current evidence on microplastic exposure routes—food, water, and air—and their presence in human tissues including skin, lungs, liver, and reproductive organs, identifying inflammation, oxidative stress, and endocrine disruption as key toxicity mechanisms. While high-confidence evidence exists for microplastics in feces and placenta, the review highlights critical gaps in standardized methodology and human-specific data needed to quantify disease risk.
ABSTRACT Microplastics (MPs) are widespread pollutants that infiltrate ecosystems, food sources, and, increasingly, human tissues. Their persistence and small size facilitate entry into the human body via food, water, and inhaled air. Recognizing the health implications, this review explores the MPs pathways and impacts, from environmental distribution to mechanisms affecting human health. Through a comprehensive assessment of papers published up to October of 2025 across Scopus, PubMed, WoS, JSTOR, and Google Scholar, we synthesize current literature on MPs exposure routes and recent findings on their presence in tissues, including the skin, lungs, liver, and reproductive organs. Mechanistic insights implicate inflammation, oxidative stress, genotoxicity, mitochondrial dysfunction, and endocrine disruption as potential modes of toxicity. However, most data derive from in vitro or animal models, with limited human‐specific validation. Evidence linking MP exposure to disease outcomes remains preliminary and heterogeneous, constrained by inconsistent metrics, lack of standardized reference materials, and small sample sizes. Evidence confidence varies across tissues; the placenta and feces show high confidence, whereas others, such as penile and heart tissue, show low confidence. Although MPs’ capacity to act as vectors for contaminants and pathogens heightens concern, the magnitude of these risks in human populations is not yet quantifiable. This review identifies methodological gaps that hinder clinical risk characterization and emphasizes the need for harmonized analytical protocols, longitudinal epidemiological studies, and coordinated regulatory frameworks. By critically appraising current evidence, we aim to clarify what is known, what remains uncertain, and which research priorities are most urgent to inform effective public health interventions.
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Human Exposure to Microplastics: Toxicological Mechanisms and Potential Health Implications - a Narrative Review
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Tiny plastic particles from our food, water, and air are showing up inside the human body, and lab studies suggest they could trigger cell damage, inflammation, and hormone disruption. This review pulls together existing research to show that while the potential risks are concerning, most evidence so far comes from test tubes and animal studies—so scientists still can't say for certain whether microplastics are directly causing specific diseases in people. More real-world human studies are needed before we know exactly how worried to be.
Microplastics and human health: a narrative review of current evidence, knowledge gaps, and future research directions
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Researchers synthesized a decade of evidence on human microplastic exposure and found that ingestion and inhalation are the primary routes, with experimental data pointing to oxidative stress, inflammation, and potential gastrointestinal and reproductive effects — while calling out inconsistent detection methods and the absence of long-term epidemiological data as critical gaps.
Microplastics as an Emerging Human Health Risk: Mechanisms, Exposure, and Clinical Evidence
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This review examines the growing body of evidence on how microplastics enter the human body through ingestion, inhalation, and skin contact, and have now been detected in blood, lung tissue, placenta, and cardiovascular tissue. Evidence indicates that microplastics may cause harm through oxidative stress, inflammation, and cellular damage, though a direct causal link to specific health conditions has not yet been fully established.
Microplastics as an Emerging Human Health Risk: Mechanisms, Exposure, and Clinical Evidence
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This review examines the growing body of evidence on how microplastics enter the human body through ingestion, inhalation, and skin contact, and have now been detected in blood, lung tissue, placenta, and cardiovascular tissue. Evidence indicates that microplastics may cause harm through oxidative stress, inflammation, and cellular damage, though a direct causal link to specific health conditions has not yet been fully established.
The Impact of Microplastics on Human Health: An Urgent Public Health Concern
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This review synthesizes current evidence on how microplastics form, enter the human body via inhalation and ingestion, accumulate in organs, and interact with biological systems, with emphasis on gastrointestinal and respiratory health impacts. The review highlights that certain polymer types like polyethylene and polypropylene pose elevated toxicity risk due to low biodegradability, underscoring microplastics as an urgent public health concern.
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