What kick-started the focus was a headline grabbing new study published in the New England Journal of Medicine in 2024 that examined the presence of microplastics and nanoplastics in human arterial plaque. Researchers analysed plaque samples from 304 patients and they detected microplastics, predominantly polyethylene, in the arterial plaque of these patients. Notably, individuals with microplastics in their arterial plaque were found to have a 4.5 times higher risk of experiencing a heart attack, stroke, or death within the subsequent three years compared to those without such microplastic presence. Very scary data indeed. Since then, various health influencers have competed in extrapolating this study and recommended implementing more and more extreme lifestyle measures to avoid plastic.

Among other health risk that have been mentioned are increased risk for chronic diseases, infertility, and endocrine issues as well as oxidative stress, inflammatory reactions and epigenetic changes.

Now Peter Attia & his team have spent a fair amount of time to review all the data on the subject. Here are his important conclusions.

Attia and crew had some very interesting findings: the media had it exaggerated, once again. He lists his findings in the article in a fairly straightforward way that is easy to understand and read. You may want to read this one because it affects you.