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Microplastic exposure and human health: an integrative toxicological perspective
Summary
This review takes an integrative toxicological perspective on how microplastic exposure may affect human health, examining exposure routes through food, water, and air. Researchers summarize evidence that microplastics' small size, durability, and surface reactivity enable them to adsorb heavy metals, form biofilms, and enter food chains. The study highlights that while evidence of harm is growing, significant gaps remain in understanding the long-term health implications of chronic microplastic exposure.
The global surge in plastic production and inadequate waste management have resulted in widespread environmental contamination with microplastics (MPs). Derived either as primary particles from consumer products or as secondary fragments from the degradation of larger plastics, MPs are now omnipresent in terrestrial, aquatic, and atmospheric ecosystems. Their small size, durability, and surface reactivity enable biofilm formation, heavy metal adsorption, and easy entry into food chains, ultimately posing significant risks to human health. This review outlines the sources, types, human exposure, including dietary intake, inhalation, and dermal contact, and their toxicological impacts on multiple organ systems. MPs can cross biological barriers, including the gastrointestinal epithelium, blood-brain barrier, and placenta, leading to distribution and bioaccumulation. Mechanistically, they induce oxidative stress, inflammation, immune dysregulation, and disruption of the gut microbiota. In the digestive system, MPs impair intestinal integrity, inhibit digestive enzymes, and promote hepatic inflammation. Inhalation alters pulmonary surfactant function, triggers cytokine release, and is implicated in asthma, fibrosis, and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. MPs also function as endocrine-disrupting chemicals, interfering with hypothalamic-pituitary axes and reproductive hormones, thereby affecting fertility and development. Neurological consequences include oxidative stress-mediated neurotoxicity, neuroinflammation, and potential links to neurodegenerative disorders. Additionally, chronic exposure to MPs and associated additives may promote carcinogenesis by inducing DNA damage, persistent inflammation, and immune evasion. Collectively, these findings highlight MPs as emerging environmental toxins with wide-ranging adverse effects on human health. Further mechanistic studies and regulatory interventions are essential to mitigate exposure and address this growing global health threat.