Microplastics and Human Health – Key Vocabulary

Fourteen vocabulary flashcards summarising essential terms and findings about microplastics’ presence, behavior and potential health impacts.

Microplastics

Plastic fragments or fibres ≤ 5 mm long that have become ubiquitous in air, food, water and human tissues.

Nanoplastics

Plastic particles < 1 µm that can cross cellular membranes and accumulate inside cells, potentially posing greater health risks than larger microplastics.

Human Challenge Trial (Microplastics)

A first-of-its-kind 2025 study in London where volunteers deliberately ingested plastic-contaminated liquids so researchers could track absorption and circulation of microplastics.

Rothamsted Research Archive

The world’s longest-running agricultural sample collection (since 1843) whose bottled soils chronicle the rise of microplastics alongside other pollutants.

Carotid Artery Plaque Microplastics

Plastic particles found inside arterial plaques of cardiovascular patients; their presence was linked to a 4.5-fold higher risk of stroke, heart attack or sudden death.

Plasticosis

Chronic inflammation and tissue scarring linked to plastic particle accumulation, first observed in seabirds and suspected to occur in humans.

Blood–Brain Barrier Impairment

A weakening of the brain’s protective barrier—seen in dementia—that may let circulating microplastics infiltrate and build up in neural tissue.

Reactive Oxygen Species (ROS)

Highly reactive molecules whose production can be stimulated by micro- or nanoplastics, leading to DNA damage and altered cell behaviour.

Vascular Organoids

Lab-grown 3-D blood-vessel structures made from human cells, used to test microplastic exposure levels and identify toxicity thresholds.

Antimicrobial Resistance Gene Hubs

Microplastic surfaces that host and disseminate genes giving microbes resistance to antibiotics, antivirals or antifungals.

Chronic Low-Grade Inflammation

Persistent, systemic immune activation thought to be fuelled by long-term microplastic accumulation, contributing to disease vulnerability.

Lipid Hitchhiking

Hypothesis that plastic particles exploit brain-bound lipids to cross into the central nervous system, where clearance is slow.

Preliminary Toxicity Threshold (10-100 µg kg⁻¹ day⁻¹)

Dose range in mice where chronic microplastic exposure triggered measurable inflammatory and metabolic changes; human relevance is under study.

Plastic Ingestion Hotspots

Regions—including the U.S., China, parts of the Middle East, North Africa and Scandinavia—where human microplastic consumption has risen sixfold since 1990.

Lipid Hitchhiking

Hypothesis: plastic particles exploit brain-bound lipids to enter the CNS, where clearance is slow.