Microplastics have infiltrated our bodies, including the brain, blood, organs and even penises. What are the potential health risks? And how can we avoid them?
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00:00So a new study found the first evidence of microplastics actually inside of
00:05penis tissue, and scientists think that could be impacting male fertility.
00:11In reality, microplastics are all over our bodies. They've already been found in
00:15blood and in sperm, and so it makes sense that they would also be in penises, but
00:21what are they doing there and how bad is it for our health? I'm Hilary Brick and I
00:27cover health at Business Insider. Microplastics were found in a deep
00:33tissue inside the penis called the corpus spongiosum, and the surgeon tells
00:39me this is largely what's responsible for erections, so he's wondering is there
00:43some sort of connection between these plastics and the dysfunction. Broadly
00:48speaking, the definition of a microplastic is basically any piece of
00:53plastic that's less than five millimeters wide, so this can mean just
00:58about anything can become a microplastic or be a microplastic. So there were two
01:04types of plastic that were the most common that the researchers found in
01:07this study, and those were PET, which is used in a lot of food packaging, and
01:11polypropylene, which is used to make bottle caps like water bottle caps.
01:16These microplastics are not something you're gonna see with the naked eye.
01:20They're between 20 and 500 micrometers wide, so that's like maybe one or two
01:27hairs. The sample size for this study was pretty small. It was done on six men all
01:33living in Miami and all struggling with erectile dysfunction, and five of the men
01:38had microplastic in their penises, but interestingly one did not. He's an older
01:44guy, a Cuban guy who lives in Miami, and you know he doesn't do that much takeout.
01:50He kind of lives a traditional life. He doesn't really use plastic water bottles
01:55that much, kind of drinks from a cup and eats from a plate. It seems kind of
01:59counterintuitive that an older person would have less plastic in their body
02:03because they've had more time to swallow plastic, but this is a trend other
02:08researchers have also found, so there's something perhaps about our modern way
02:13of living that is contributing to the fact that there's more microplastic in
02:17our bodies. The two main ways that scientists think that we are getting
02:23microplastics inside of us are either by swallowing them or inhaling them, so
02:28either from the air or from eating, drinking something. So it goes into your
02:33digestive tract and then it travels down into your gut, and then once it's in
02:38your gut it gets processed and it can enter the bloodstream, and that's when it
02:43can just really go just about anywhere in your body, including in testicles, not
02:48just penises, but also semen, blood, the gut, the brain. It's a little bit
02:56difficult to quantify how much microplastic is in our body, but one
02:59recent study suggested our intake of microplastics has increased six-fold
03:04since 1990. This is a trend that's expected to only continue. Our global
03:08consumption of plastic is expected to triple by 2060. So it's not like you can
03:15identify one source of microplastics. They really are everywhere in everything.
03:20Microplastics are present in foods we eat and drinks we consume, so if you go
03:26out for a to-go coffee, there's a little plastic film inside your cup. If you eat
03:32from a takeout container, it's probably coated with a shiny coating. The slice of
03:37pizza comes on a piece of paper that might have some little microplastics
03:41that you eat in your pizza. If you drink water, that can also have microplastics
03:47in it, either from the bottle cap, it might pop off and get in there. Another
03:51place that microplastics come from is the clothes we wear and when we do
03:55laundry. So these little microfibers, all these sort of new and often improved
04:02fabrics that can stretch and do various things, when they get washed, those
04:06microfibers will come out of them. There's a lot of microplastic in the
04:10air we breathe as well. It's incorporated into the household dust. It's really kind
04:15of impossible to act like we could ever get away from microplastics. There are so
04:21many different chemicals inside of microplastics. There's like more than
04:2613,000, but I will mention a few of the most common. One of them is BPA or
04:32bisphenol A. BPA is one of these endocrine disrupting chemicals that can
04:38confuse our hormones and scientists have shown that it can lead to more cancer or
04:44more obesity, hyperactivity, decreased immunity and ability to fight off
04:50infections. So it's one of these hormone disrupting chemicals that can impact the
04:56way our body functions. BPA was phased out of baby bottles a few years ago in
05:022013 and it's been increasingly phased out of the linings of cans. The FDA says
05:08that the level of BPA we're exposed to in things like food packaging is safe,
05:14but the research on this is still in its infancy. Another chemical inside
05:19microplastics is PFAS. You might have heard of these called forever chemicals.
05:24PFAS are a broad class of chemicals that are used in all kinds of things from
05:30raincoats to Teflon to firefighting foam and food packaging. PFAS are useful
05:37because they repel water and so you can waterproof things or make things more
05:42leak proof or nonstick and while they're really good at resisting grease and fire
05:47and rain, they are also really good at sticking around forever. That's why
05:52they're called forever chemicals and they are also endocrine disruptors so
05:56they mess with the normal functioning of our hormones and can cause some health
06:01problems. They have been linked with lower birth rates, lowered immunity, some
06:06obesity in children and also cancers including testicular cancer. Another type
06:11of chemical is called phthalates and these are really flexible pliable
06:16plastics. Independent experts are concerned about phthalates because
06:19there's evidence they can influence reproductive development leading to more
06:24allergies, issues with development like more cases of ADHD, lower IQs, impacting
06:30brain development but also specifically for men that it might be tied to lower
06:35testosterone and by having an anti-androgenic effect on the body.
06:39Another plastic is PET. This is the stuff that a lot of bottles and bottle caps
06:45are made from. There's concerns that that when it gets really hot like above a
06:50hundred degrees can leach out some toxic chemicals, that there could be harmful
06:55effects over time leaching out of those bottles and bottle caps. The bottom line
07:00is whatever kind of plastic you're using it probably has some kind of chemical in
07:04it that has some kind of impact on your hormones and your health. But there are a
07:10few things you can do to avoid microplastics. I've interviewed a lot of
07:13experts about microplastics over the years and the one thing that everyone
07:18says is do not microwave your plastic. That's because when the plastic heats up
07:25it gives all those chemicals and potentially toxic things a chance to
07:29leach out into the food you're eating or the thing you're drinking. My second tip
07:34for avoiding microplastics is to try to avoid plastic takeout containers, plastic
07:40water bottles and to go cups when you can. Just getting away from those and
07:45cooking more at home when you can is really one of the best ways to avoid
07:49microplastic in your food. The third tip that I talked to experts about is to
07:54vacuum regularly, ventilate your house because a lot of microplastic gets into
08:00the dust in our house and so if your house is less dusty, less chance for you
08:05to be inhaling microplastics. Some of the scientists I talked to are most
08:10concerned about some of the skincare that we use, all of those artificial
08:14scents and fragrances that are in there can have a lot of phthalates in them so
08:18they recommend trying to avoid super scented things and trying to pick out
08:23more natural fibers when you can and when the price is agreeable because a
08:28lot of those synthetic materials that we wear have a lot of plastic chemicals in
08:33them. This last tip is one that pretty much any health expert will tell you for
08:39anything and it's wash your hands before you eat. Getting the germs and the
08:44microplastics off your hands will help keep more of them out of your body. These
08:49plastics aren't just passing through us and you know going out the other end
08:53they might be causing some damage while they're inside. One of the leading
08:59microplastics researchers Tracy Woodruff at the University of California San
09:04Francisco told me that she really feels like we're at an inflection point with
09:08microplastics where we're starting to learn more and more about them where
09:11they are and what they're doing in our bodies and she feels like this should
09:15really be a rallying moment for people to and regulators to step up and start
09:20to regulate the plastic industry much in the way that cigarettes were regulated
09:24in the 1960s.