Pillalamarri Srikrishnarka,
Chennai, India: “Plastics have become an integral part of our life” is an understatement, with a global market worth 430 Billion USD! is one of the richest industries and is expected to grow to 600 USD by 2026. In view of current times where wearing of masks and protecting oneself from COVID has become a basic necessity, these number can easily skyrocket.
After it’s purpose has been solved, plastics generally end up as debris both in landfills and the oceans. With is inertness and high half-life, these plastics don’t degrade, however they break down into tiny fragments forming micro and nano plastics. With potential health risks from these nanoplastics, the health and environmental factors need to be understood ASAP.
Recent evidences on the presence of these micro plastics in fish(Accumulation, Tissue Distribution, and Biochemical Effects of Polystyrene Microplastics in the Freshwater Fish Red Tilapia (Oreochromis Niloticus). Environ. Pollut. 2018, 238, 1−9, Brain Damage and Behavioural Disorders in Fish Induced by Plastic Nanoparticles Delivered through the Food Chain. Sci. Rep. 2017, 7, 11452.) and the human fetus is alarming, major reforms are needed for the safe disposal of plastics globally.
Liu et al., investigated the interaction of nanoplastics with the brain and for the first time they observed the deposition of plastics in the brain by inhalation. For this study, they chose polystyrene beads of the size range 80-200 nm and functionalized with acid and amine groups and their bio interactions were studied. With 7-day exposure to nanoplastics aerosols, these plastics have successfully penetrated the blood brain barrier and liver. Amine-functionalized polystyrene particles absorbed easily through the nasal mucosa compared to that of acid-functionalized polystyrene beads. Such accumulation in the brain could lead to inflammation that could further cause brain disorders and cognitive delusions. In controlled environment, they observed that mice under exposure to plastic aerosols had reduced average movement speed when compared to that of control.
They have concluded that with an understanding of the pathway of plastics into the brain, the focus could be on the block of these pathways and prevention of the internalization and deposition in the brain can be done.
These results have been published in ACS Nanoletters ( Nano Lett. 2022, 22, 1091−1099)