What damage would occur if nanoplastics enter the brain?

The emotional impact on people, the inherent problem of plastic that pours into our seas and oceans, has been so strong in recent years that it has allowed the creation of a worldwide mobilization on a phenomenon that is as hateful as it is dangerous for animal health. but also for man.

Public opinion has gone through two phases of knowledge of the problem:

• The first phase was the discovery of plastic islands that have formed in some areas of the oceans, the result of sea currents and winds, of such extensive dimensions as to constitute, in addition to an environmental problem, an eyesore and a cry complaints about human activities and behaviors. We were moved by seeing the fish, seabirds and turtles entangled in plastic bags or having ingested plastic fragments mistaken for food.

• The second phase was the discovery that the bottles, flacons, forks and many other products that were poured into the oceans, over time decomposed into microplastics. These took on dimensions so small that they entered the fish food chain and therefore also that of man. A sneaky enemy because we don’t see it and we feed on it regularly.

According to research by the University of Lund, there is an even more insidious enemy for humans, which is represented by nanoplastics , bringing the problem of plastics into the sea to a third stage.

In fact, the researchers studied the chemical and physical degradation of some plastic caps used to cover the coffee cups, following all the disintegration phases that the product undergoes at sea.

It has been shown that the joint action of the sea and the sun brings plastic waste from a visible dimension to microplastics and then turns into nanoplastics, which have a size of a few millionths of a millimeter, allowing it to be easily absorbed by the beings . living, including man.

A study by the same university has shown that nanoplastics can enter the brain of fish by causing brain damage.

What remains to be determined concerns what the damage that nanoplasts can cause in humans and what could be defined as dangerous for health. In fact, it has been understood that, due to their carbon-based chemical composition , they are difficult to detect and could easily pass into the blood and reach the human brain.

Automatic translation. We apologize for any inaccuracies. Original article in Italian.