Papers

61,005 results
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Article Tier 2

Further studies in translatable model systems are needed to predict the impacts of human microplastic exposure.

This review argues that better animal models are needed to accurately predict the health impacts of microplastic exposure on humans, noting that current studies using aquatic organisms and fish may not translate well to human biology. The authors call for more research using mammalian models and for studies that test environmentally realistic exposure conditions including the chemical cocktails associated with plastic particles.

2020 Open access journal of toxicology
Review Tier 2

Microplastics and Human Health: A Comprehensive Review on Exposure Pathways, Toxicity, and Emerging Risks

This comprehensive review examines microplastic exposure pathways in humans, methods of detection, and the potential toxic effects on various biological systems. The study highlights growing evidence that microplastics can enter the body through ingestion, inhalation, and dermal contact, and may affect multiple organ systems, though significant uncertainties remain about long-term health outcomes.

2026 Microplastics
Article Tier 2

An Investigation into the Environmental and Human Health Implications of Microplastic Toxicity

This review synthesizes evidence on how microplastics are distributed throughout the environment, the routes by which people are exposed (food, water, and air), and the health effects documented in experimental studies. The authors find significant links between microplastic exposure and adverse health outcomes and call for urgent regulatory action and more research into long-term human health risks.

2023 Social Science Humanities and Sustainability Research 1 citations
Article Tier 2

Microplastic Exposure and Human Health: Advancing Risk Assessment and Future Research Directions

This review synthesizes recent evidence that microplastics are present in human blood, respiratory tissue, placenta, and gut, examines proposed toxicological mechanisms, and identifies priorities for improving risk assessment frameworks and exposure measurement methods.

2025 Theoretical and Natural Science
Article Tier 2

Exposure scenarios for human health risk assessment of nano- and microplastic particles

This paper focuses on developing realistic exposure scenarios for assessing human health risks from nano- and microplastic particles. Establishing accurate models of how much plastic people actually encounter through food, air, and water is a critical step for determining whether current exposure levels pose real health dangers.

2025 Microplastics and Nanoplastics 16 citations
Article Tier 2

Gaps in aquatic toxicological studies of microplastics

This paper identifies key gaps in aquatic toxicological studies of microplastics, arguing that most studies use unrealistic concentrations or particle types and calling for more ecologically relevant experimental designs to better assess real-world risks.

2017 Chemosphere 113 citations
Article Tier 2

Environmental pollution by microplastics and its consequences on human health

This narrative review examines how plastics discarded in the environment fragment into microplastics through environmental and biological stresses, accumulate across terrestrial and marine ecosystems, and enter human bodies primarily through seafood, drinking water, and air inhalation, summarizing documented toxicological consequences for human health based on literature published from 2017 to 2022.

2022 Research Society and Development 3 citations
Article Tier 2

Potential adverse health effects of ingested micro- and nanoplastics on humans. Lessons learned from in vivo and in vitro mammalian models

This review compiles recent studies on the effects of ingested micro- and nanoplastics using mammalian in vivo and in vitro models to assess potential human health implications. The authors found that while substantial research effort has been made, significant gaps remain in understanding absorption, biodistribution, and toxicity of these particles in mammalian systems. The review provides recommendations for improved testing methods to generate more relevant and targeted data for human risk assessment.

2019 Journal of Toxicology and Environmental Health Part B 272 citations
Article Tier 2

The potential effects of microplastics on human health: What is known and what is unknown

This review summarizes what is currently known about how microplastics might affect human health, noting that while contamination is widespread in food, water, and air, direct evidence of harm in humans is still limited. Studies in animals and cell cultures suggest microplastics could trigger immune responses, cause inflammation, and affect reproduction and development. The authors call for more rigorous clinical studies to determine whether the levels of microplastics that people actually encounter pose real health risks.

2021 AMBIO 419 citations
Article Tier 2

A review of microplastic pollution and human health risk assessment: current knowledge and future outlook

This review reports that people worldwide consume an estimated 11,845 to 193,200 microplastic particles per year, primarily through drinking water. Microplastics can accumulate in organs and cause inflammation, oxidative stress, and potential damage to the nervous and reproductive systems, but standardized methods for assessing these health risks in humans are still lacking.

2025 Frontiers in Environmental Science 19 citations
Review Tier 2

A review of data for quantifying human exposures to micro and nanoplastics and potential health risks

This review synthesizes data on human exposure to micro- and nanoplastics through air, water, and food, and examines the potential health effects. Researchers found evidence of respiratory, liver, immune, and gastrointestinal impacts in humans and mammals exposed to elevated plastic particle levels, with toxicity varying by plastic type and size. The study highlights that while growing evidence links plastic particle exposure to health concerns, significant data gaps remain in quantifying actual human intake and long-term risks.

2020 The Science of The Total Environment 203 citations
Article Tier 2

Potential human health risk assessment of microplastic exposure: current scenario and future perspectives

This review assessed the potential human health risks from microplastic exposure across various pathways including ingestion, inhalation, and dermal contact. The study highlights that the small size of microplastics enables their global transport to even remote regions, and discusses current evidence on how microplastics may affect human health through physical, chemical, and biological mechanisms.

2022 Environmental Monitoring and Assessment 42 citations
Article Tier 2

Human Toxicity of Nano‐ and Microplastics

This review summarizes current evidence on the human toxicity of nano- and microplastics, covering ingestion, inhalation, and dermal exposure routes and the biological effects documented in experimental systems. The authors assess the state of the evidence and identify key gaps for risk characterization.

2024 1 citations
Article Tier 2

Estimation of the mass of microplastics ingested – A pivotal first step towards human health risk assessment

Researchers compiled data from multiple studies to estimate the mass of microplastics that humans ingest from various sources including food, water, and air. This work represents an important first step toward formal health risk assessment, though the study notes significant data gaps and uncertainties that need to be addressed before definitive exposure levels can be established.

2020 Journal of Hazardous Materials 939 citations
Article Tier 2

Impact of microplastics on human health: exposure mechanisms and potential health implications

This review examines how microplastics enter the human body through food, drinking water, and inhaled air, and summarizes what is known about their potential health effects. Researchers found that microplastics have been detected in human stool samples, blood, and lung tissue, and may carry harmful chemicals and pathogens. The study highlights that while evidence of direct health impacts is still emerging, the widespread presence of microplastics in everyday exposure pathways warrants serious attention.

2024 Quality in Sport 7 citations
Article Tier 2

The need for ecologically realistic studies on the health effects of microplastics

This perspective argues that current laboratory studies on microplastic health effects — which rely on force-feeding rodents unrealistically high doses — poorly represent actual wildlife or human exposures, calling for more ecologically realistic study designs to generate meaningful risk data.

2022 4 citations
Article Tier 2

A review of microplastics in the aquatic environmental: distribution, transport, ecotoxicology, and toxicological mechanisms

This review examines how microplastics are distributed, transported, and accumulate throughout aquatic environments, and the toxicological effects they have on aquatic organisms. The study suggests that microplastics can affect human health through the food chain, but notes that understanding of combined toxicity mechanisms remains very limited. The authors identify significant knowledge gaps and call for more systematic environmental risk assessments across multiple species.

2020 Environmental Science and Pollution Research 153 citations
Article Tier 2

Microplastics: challenges of assessment in biological samples and their implication for in vitro and in vivo effects

This review examines the challenges of detecting and assessing microplastics in biological samples, noting that analytical limitations and lack of standardized methods hinder our understanding of health effects. The study highlights that humans are exposed to microplastics primarily through ingestion and inhalation, and that more long-term studies with standardized protocols are needed to understand the full scope of potential biological impacts.

2023 Environmental Science and Pollution Research 7 citations
Article Tier 2

Understanding Human Health Impacts Following Microplastic Exposure Necessitates Standardized Protocols

This overview examines the methods currently used to study how microplastics affect human health, highlighting significant inconsistencies in experimental approaches. Researchers identified challenges including the lack of standardized reference materials, variability in exposure conditions, and limited understanding of how microplastic doses translate to real-world exposure. The study proposes solutions to standardize protocols so that future research builds on a more reliable foundation.

2024 Current Protocols 6 citations
Article Tier 2

Microplastic in the Aquatic Environment and their Impact on Aquatic Organisms and Humans: A Review

This review summarizes research on microplastic occurrence across marine water, freshwater, drinking water, wastewater, food, and air, characterizing microplastics as the most hazardous emerging contaminants of the 21st century given their ubiquity and persistence. The review underscores that human exposure through multiple simultaneous pathways — including food, water, and respiration — makes understanding cumulative health risks a critical research and public health priority.

2023 Acta Scientific Pharmaceutical Sciences
Article Tier 2

Microplastic Pollutants in Aquatic Ecosystems: Present and Future Challenges

This review synthesizes evidence on microplastics as a widespread and growing contaminant found across marine, freshwater, terrestrial, and atmospheric environments. Organisms at every level of the food chain ingest microplastics, which cause physical harm, oxidative stress, and reproductive disruption, while also acting as carriers for toxic chemicals and pathogens. For humans, exposure via contaminated food, water, and air is well-documented — microplastics have been found in blood and tissues — though direct causal health links are still being established, making further research a priority.

2023 Water 6 citations
Article Tier 2

Impact of Microplastics on Human health: Time for us to get attentive- before it’s too late

This paper reviewed the growing evidence on microplastic impacts on human health, covering ingestion, inhalation, and dermal exposure routes, and the potential for microplastics to cause inflammation, oxidative stress, and endocrine disruption. The authors argue the problem demands urgent regulatory attention.

2024 Diabetes Asia Journal.
Article Tier 2

Microplastics toxicity: Classification, sources, exposure routes, and experiments

This review summarized the classification, sources, exposure routes, and toxicological effects of microplastics across environmental matrices and biological systems. The authors synthesized evidence from multiple exposure experiments to assess human health risks from ingestion, inhalation, and dermal contact with common plastic polymers.

2025 Desalination and Water Treatment
Article Tier 2

The need for environmentally realistic studies on the health effects of terrestrial microplastics

Researchers reviewed 114 studies on the health effects of microplastics in laboratory rodents and found that most experiments used concentrations and plastic types that do not reflect what animals and humans actually encounter in the real world. The plastic types, sizes, and doses used in lab settings often differ substantially from environmental conditions. The study calls for more environmentally realistic research designs to generate data that can meaningfully inform health risk assessments for terrestrial species, including humans.

2023 Microplastics and Nanoplastics 21 citations