Journalist A.J. Jacobs tried to go one full day without using or interacting with any plastic.
He made it 10 seconds.
Jacobs chronicled his attempt to go plastic-free for 24 hours back in 2023 for The New York Times. His first plastic encounter came as he got out of bed in the morning and put his feet on his bedroom carpet. That is because it was made out of nylon, which is a type of plastic.
Jacobs went out of his way preparing for the experiment, stashing his iPhone in a closet because it contained plastic. His morning hygiene routine was altered with replacements for his toothpaste, toothbrush, soap and shampoo. He made a do-it-yourself deodorant.
Despite his best efforts, Jacobs still interacted with plastic 164 different times.
The moral of the story: plastic is all around us.
There are more than 10,500 chemicals known to be used in the plastic manufacturing process, for a majority of them there is little understanding of their overall safety and health impacts. Plastic is also inside of us in the form of microplastics and nanoplastics. Should we be worried? Philip Kuriakose, MD, answered that question and more in the latest episode of the AMA podcast “Health vs. Hype.”
"Health vs. Hype" takes on medical misinformation, viral health trends, DIY medicine, and common health myths to help listeners understand what’s real, what’s risky, and what’s backed by science. Host Trace Dominguez fact-checks popular health claims, explains how medical misinformation spreads, and reveals the real-world consequences of getting it wrong.
Dr. Kuriakose is a senior staff physician specializing in hematology and general cancer care at Henry Ford Health. He also is chief of the section of hematology at Henry Ford Health and medical director of the hemophilia and thrombosis treatment center.
Henry Ford Health is part of the AMA Health System Member Program, which provides enterprise solutions to equip leadership, physicians and care teams with resources to help drive the future of medicine.
Microplastics enter our bodies in a number of ways
Microplastics measure up to 5 millimeters in length—about the size of a sesame seed to the size of an eraser pencil—while nanoplastics are less than 1 micrometer, meaning they are not visible to the naked eye. These microplastics and nanoplastics exist in foods, drinks, clothes, cosmetics, and even the air, meaning there are multiple ways for them to enter the human body. The predominant way is through food.
“When that happens, these particles, they kind of go through our stomach and the intestines, across the intestinal lining, and can lodge through the bloodstream into our organs of filtration,” Dr. Kuriakose said.
“Particles can go into our airways, into our lungs.”
“A sizable amount lodges within tissues, within the cells themselves,” he said. “Being foreign objects, the body then attempts to try and keep them located in one area by creating inflammation. That's what the body does to foreign objects that get lodged within our systems.”
There is not a universal reaction to microplastics
“Normally we think A leads to B, so A is the reason for B, not realizing that between A and B there are many stops,” Dr. Kuriakose said. “What that means is just being exposed to something does not mean that that is either the whole, sole cause of everything bad or that it is even the major player. It could be, but it could also be that what's concerning are the additional factors involved along with it.”
“My makeup would be different from somebody else's,” he said. “Therefore, the way I metabolize an exposure might be very different from somebody else's. So my genetic makeup might itself lead to a difference in outcome.”
Learn more with the AMA about what doctors want patients to know about microplastics.
Microplastics may affect your immune system
“Our first line of defense—apart from the skin and the gut lining—is the lining of our airways in the lungs,” Dr. Kuriakose said. “These are filled with cells that help fight off all of the bad exposures we have, be it particles or bacteria, viruses, etc. We have seen patients who get exposed to particulate matter that is visible, so not microparticles necessarily, who end up having significant respiratory symptoms, and all of these can impact the immune response.”
He added that “the immune impact” of microplastics “is pertinent. ... Granted, we don't know as much as we should and are not sure exactly what true steps we should take to mitigate these apart from minimizing exposure, but it's concerning enough.”
It’s not clear if microplastics cause cancer
“In terms of cancer in particular, I look at it as two sides of a coin,” Dr. Kuriakose said. “The first is we truly do not have, I believe, at this time, adequate data to tell us that microplastics do cause cancer, or what particular kind of cancer they might cause. … We should not assume that [it] is like smoking, a known carcinogen. We shouldn't assume the same with microplastics.”
“The other side of the coin is that just because we don't have enough data today, the important word is ‘today,’” he said. “Cancer incidence is rising. Part of it is perhaps early detection, but part of it could be because of what we're exposed to, microplastics or anything else. And so we should not cease testing to figure out if it is or not. If you finally prove that it is not, it's a great piece of knowledge. But if we prove it is, then we know that and we can try and take steps to minimize that.”
There are ways to reduce microplastic exposure
Dr. Kuriakose outlines some steps that patients can take to mitigate the potential impact of microplastics.
“Bottled water in plastic containers is a reasonable source of exposure, especially if it is reused,” he noted. “Don't take it home and then refill it and use it the next day and the next and so on and so forth.”
On the other hand, the notion that kimchi could attach to and help people excrete nanoplastics is less persuasive, Dr. Kuriakose said.
“I don't think kimchi as consumed commercially and processed the way it is when we eat kimchi could necessarily be considered as a binder.”
In addition, drinking tea probably will not cause more exposure to microplastics—another idea that has gained currency.
“Teabags that might have a plastic base to them—clearly that is going to be an exposure risk if you're somebody who drinks tea once or twice a day and uses those kinds of bags,” Dr. Kuriakose said. “But otherwise, if they are made of biodegradable substances, you may not [need to worry about exposure]. The concern about teabags is because [of] the heat exposure that occurs. But again, it's only if you have a sizable amount of exposure over a lifetime.”
And when it comes to microwaving food in plastic containers, Dr. Kuriakose said the risk depends.
“Microwaving in plastics could be a concern, especially if the plastic being used has been used and reused, but otherwise, on occasion, if you were to do it … you're fine,” Dr. Kuriakose said. “If the plastic container that you're using has had a long shelf life … and therefore is already losing surface material, it is going to lead to particulate substances either going into the food that you're heating or the fluid that you're heating, or the air around it.”
Last year, the AMA House of Delegates adopted policy addressing the health consequences of plastics and microplastics. Per the policy, the AMA:
- Recognizes the potential health risks associated with plastics and microplastics and encourages increased research to better understand the human health effects and environmental impacts of plastics across their lifespan, including the chemicals used in plastic production.
- Supports the development of evidence-based guidelines for monitoring and mitigating microplastic exposure in water, food, air and other consumer products.
- Will collaborate with relevant stakeholders to promote public education about microplastics, their sources, potential health risks, and possible strategies for reducing exposure.
- Supports policies to reduce plastic pollution, such as limits on single-use plastics (for example plastic bags), incentivizing nonplastic alternatives such as reusable bags, food containers and packaging, incentivizing alternative reformulations of synthetic plastics (such as bioplastics), and improving recycling infrastructure and systems to better manage plastic waste.
To learn more, listen to the “Clinically Significant” podcast, “Microplastics Infiltrate Our Bodies. How Can Physicians Help?” on the AMA Ed Hub™.
Microplastics concern warranted, but don’t be consumed by it
“If we do end up finding out that [plastic] is truly something that is harmful to our body system and harmful in this manner, we would tell ourselves: Hey, I have it everywhere around me. Now what do I do?" Dr. Kuriakose said.
“The important thing that we all should do is never cease in living life to the fullest,” he added. “We all have adapted and adjusted and done great things as a human race, and we still can in the midst of all the plastic exposure we have, but we should keep studying what could potentially go wrong with them and take the right steps to mitigate those.”
