09/07/2025
Humans inhale as much as 68,000 microplastic particles daily, study finds
Particles are small enough to burrow into lungs, says report, with health impacts ‘more substantial than we realize’
Tom Perkins Thu 28 Aug 2025 08.00 EDT
Every breath people take in their homes or car probably contains significant amounts of microplastics small enough to burrow deep into lungs, new peer-reviewed research finds, bringing into focus a little understood route of exposure and health threat.
The study, published in the journal Plos One, estimates humans can inhale as much as 68,000 tiny plastic particles daily. Previous studies have identified larger pieces of airborne microplastics, but those are not as much of a health threat because they do not hang in the air as long, or move as deep into the pulmonary system.
The smaller bits measure between 1 and 10 micrometers, or about one-seventh the thickness of a human hair, and present more of a health threat because they can more easily be distributed throughout the body. The findings “suggest that the health impacts of microplastic inhalation may be more substantial than we realize”, the authors wrote.
“We were quite surprised about the microplastic levels we found – it was much higher than previously estimated,” said Nadiia Yakovenko, a microplastics researcher and study co-author with France’s University of Toulouse. “The size of the particle is small and well-known to transfer into tissue, which is dangerous because it can enter into the bloodstream and go deep into the respiratory system.”
Microplastics are tiny bits of plastic either intentionally added to consumer goods, or which are products of larger plastics breaking down. The particles contain any number of 16,000 plastic chemicals, of which many, such as BPA, phthalates and Pfas, present serious health risks.
