Microplastic fragments found in more than half of clogged artery patients

A new study has found microplastics in the clogged arteries of more than half of heart disease patients in Australia, prompting more warnings on the circulation of single-use plastic.

Following up with patients nearly three years later, the microplastic appeared to double the risk of heart attack, stroke, and death, compared with patients who didn’t have plastic in their system.

The study collected images of the microplastic particles within the patient’s arteries, pictured above with recognisable jagged black outlines.

Researchers said the plastic stood out because the “particles do not resemble usual organic material owing to their particularly irregular shape”.

The study examined 257 patients, finding polyethylene (a kind of plastic) in the artery plaques of 150 of them (58.4 per cent), and another kind of plastic, polyvinyl chloride, in the plaques of 31 patients (12.1 per cent).

Following these patients for 34 months, the study’s authors said the plastics increased the risk of heart attack, stroke and death, compared with patients who didn’t have any plastics in their system.

The risk of these extreme outcomes was 2.1 higher for patients with microplastic in their arterial clogs.

As more and more studies find microplastics in human bodies, the study’s authors say these microplastics and nanoplastics are emerging as a bigger risk factor in studies of cardiovascular disease. 

Discussing the research in the New England Journal of Medicine,  Phillip Landrigan, an American researcher at Boston College and Harvard University said “the benefits of plastics come at great and increasingly visible costs to human health and the environment”.

“Until now, information on the health effects in humans of ingested or inhaled microplastics and nanoplastics has been scant,” he said.

Prior to this study, most studies researching the long-term effects of microplastic kept their inquiry to animals.

Landrigan said the discovery raises a series of urgent questions. 

“Should exposure to microplastics and nanoplastics be considered a cardiovascular risk factor? What organs in addition to the heart may be at risk? How can we reduce exposure?”

According to Landrigan, Doctors “should recognise that the low cost and convenience of plastics are deceptive and that, in fact, they mask great harms.”

As one way to help protect patients’ hearts, Landrigan recommended that people avoid single-use plastics wherever possible.