Microplastics and the Public Health Crisis

MAHA – It means Make America Healthy Again, and it’s the slogan of Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., the man President Donald Trump picked to lead the Department of Health and Human Services. With Kennedy’s nomination and the public hearings leading up to the vote on his confirmation, certain ideas about health that haven’t had the attention they deserve in a long time are once again becoming dinner table talking points. Among those are the dangers of microplastics, which are tiny particles of plastic so small they can’t be seen with the naked eye. To make America healthy again, these tiny bits of plastic have to go!

Microplastics and Public Health

Obesity and cancer in the US have grown into huge public health crises, and many of these cases are likely due to toxins in the food supply and environment in general. Studies increasingly demonstrate toxic threats to developing children’s bodies from microplastics and chemicals called phthalates (plasticizers) used in plastic containers and food service gloves. A recent study of human brains found an average equivalent of a plastic spoon’s worth of microplastics per brain, an increase of 50% in eight years. A 2023 study estimated that humans are inhaling the equivalent of a credit card per week of microplastics.

The evidence of the harm to the human heart, brain, vital organs, and respiratory system caused by phthalates and microplastics emerged years ago but remains unaddressed. Invisible plastic particulates and the chemicals they contain abound like a swirling potion of unseen mini-viruses that kill slowly through cancers, obesity, thyroid problems, birth defects, hormone imbalance, hypertension, heart disease, and diabetes, and are suspected links to autism, dementia, and unhealthy gut microbiomes.

Plastics in synthetic fibers, plastic wraps, degrading consumer products, rubber tire dust, and other sources swirl around with pesticides, food additives, pharmaceuticals, and a plethora of manmade ecotoxins in the water, air, soil, oceans, and foods that are humans’ life source.

Researchers claim some 350,000 synthetic chemicals and microplastics are invisibly intermingling in the environment, 50 times as much as in 1950 and expected to triple again by 2050!

Groceries and fast foods are widely tainted with perchlorate, aka rocket fuel. A Consumer Reports study found the highest levels of these toxins in children’s and baby foods. And America may not have much time to reverse course – many of these toxic chemicals remain in the environment forever.

1. Microplastics are tiny particles of plastics that are so small we can’t even see them with the naked eye.
2. Studies show that microplastics build up in the brain and that the average brain contains enough plastic to make a plastic spoon. Another study showed that people inhale as much as a credit card’s worth of microplastics every week.
3. Researchers say there are 50 times more synthetic chemicals and microplastics in the environment than in 1950, and that number is expected to triple again by 2050.