<
https://www.sciencealert.com/alarming-increase-in-microplastics-detected-in-human-placentas>
'Scientists are finding microplastics unnervingly close to developing fetuses
during pregnancy.
In just the past few years, preliminary research has turned up microscopic bits
of plastic floating in a few dozen samples of human placenta – the organ that
provides oxygen and nutrients to a growing fetus.
A new analysis on donated placental tissues now expands on those results and
hints at an alarming trend.
When researchers at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa, the Kapiʻolani Medical
Center for Women & Children, and Federal University of Alagoas, Brazil,
analyzed 30 placentas donated to the Hawaiʻi Reproductive Biospecimen
Repository between 2006 and 2021 they found plastic contamination had increased
significantly over time.
In 2006, only six of the the ten donated placentas contained microplastics. By
2013, nine out of ten placentas were found to be contaminated. In 2021, each of
the ten placentas anayzed showed plastic pollution, and the sizes of the
microplastic particles were bigger than ever.
"We believe that the plastics may be floating around in food or being inhaled.
It's coming through our digestive fluids or lungs, and the particles are
getting absorbed through the gut and traveling through the bloodstream, and
then somehow collecting in the placenta during pregnancy," explains
obstetrician and researcher Men Jean Lee from Kapiʻolani Medical Center.
"The big question is, as it's traveling through the placenta, can it get
through the umbilical cord and then to the baby? We don't know that right
now."'
Via Rixty Dixet.
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
