Plastic. We can’t imagine our life without it. We are surrounded with plastic, dressed head to toe in synthetic material, and drinking from water bottles. The one place in which plastic shouldn’t get to you is your mother’s womb. You don’t even know what plastic is at that point. Well, that’s no longer the case.
A study conducted by Raman Microspectroscopy found microplastics in the human placenta. Samples collected from 9 consenting women with physiological pregnancies attested to the claim. In total, 12 microplastic fragments were collected from the maternal placenta, the fetal placenta, and the chorioamnionitis membranes. The “intruders” ranged from 5 to 10 μm in size and had spherical or irregular shapes.
For reference, microplastics are small, microscopic fragments of plastic, created through the deterioration of mundane objects. These particles can find their way into living creatures’ bodies, and cause lots of trouble.
The size of the microplastic particles could suggest transportation by the bloodstream, but then again, it’s still unknown how they got into the blood vessels: maybe through the respiratory or the gastrointestinal system.
The placenta is the fetus’ veil to the outside world. It reinforces complex instinctual responses like the differentiation of self and non-self. These mechanisms could be disturbed by the presence of microplastics. They could also cause immune deficiencies due to the toxicity they exert.
Plastic is our downfall. It is already flooding our oceans and poisoning our land. And now it has invaded our bodies. Plastic was an innovation for its time, but at this very moment, it is our biggest enemy.
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