A short talk by Aaron Hartman, MD about microplastics (micro- and nanoplastics) as an emerging environmental exposure that humans absorb via inhalation and ingestion. The speaker highlights recent attention to the issue and cites a study finding nanoplastics in the walls of carotid arteries—suggesting a possible link to cardiovascular disease.
Chapters
So I'd like to talk about microplastics. Recently in social media, in the news, these are actually coming to our consciousness that this is actually a really, really big deal. So the concept of microplastics are this, that we're getting exposed to small, small, small particles of plastics called micro or nanoplastics in our environment and you can actually absorb them through breathing, through things you eat. This has been under the radar now for about the last five to 10 years we've known about it. But this article actually brings it to light that nanoplastics are a really, really big issue and they actually may be associated with a significant amount of cardiovascular disease. There's a study quoted here that actually looked at people with blocked carotid arteries. About 78% of their carotid arteries are blocked and over half of them actually had nanoplastics in the walls of their arteries. So this is like the big smoking gun. Like, oh my gosh, this is actually a really, really big issue.