The British newspaper, “The Guardian”, confirmed that microplastic pollution was discovered in the depths of living lungs for the first time, as particles were found in almost all samples analyzed.
The scientists said microplastic pollution is now ubiquitous on the planet, making human exposure unavoidable and meaning "there is a growing concern about the risks" to health.
And the newspaper added that tissue samples were taken from 13 patients who underwent surgery and microplastics were found in 11 cases, and the most common particles were polypropylene used in packaging and plastic tubes, and PET used in bottles, and two previous studies found that it was found Microplastics have similarly high rates in lung tissue taken during autopsy.
She added that it was already known that people breathe in the fine particles, as well as consume them via food and water, and workers exposed to high levels of microplastics are also known to have contracted fatal illness.
She pointed out that microplastic particles were discovered in human blood for the first time last March, which indicates that the particles can travel around the body and may settle in the organs.
She added that the impact on health is not yet known, but researchers are concerned that microplastics cause damage to human cells in the laboratory and it is already known that air pollution particles enter the body and cause millions of deaths early each year.
Laura Sadowski from Hull York Medical College in the UK, lead author of the study, said: 'We did not expect to find as many particles in the lower regions of the lungs, or particles of the size that we did find. The lungs, and we expected that particles of these sizes would be filtered or trapped before they reached this depth.”