You eat thousands of bits of plastic every year

One study published in 2018 in the journal Environmental Pollution concluded that people were more likely to ingest plastic through the dust in their environment than by eating shellfish.

So what happens to plastic once it’s in your body? Does it enter your bloodstream? Does it sink into your gut? Or does it simply pass through without doing harm?

Scientists still aren’t quite sure about the number of microplastics a body can tolerate or how much damage they do. In 2017, a study out of King’s College in London hypothesized that, over time, the cumulative effect of ingesting plastic could be toxic. Different types of plastic have varying toxic properties. Some are made with toxic chemicals like chlorine, while others pick up trace amounts of chemicals like lead found in the environment. A build-up of these toxins over time could impact the immune system.

When researchers from Johns Hopkins looked at the impact of eating seafood contaminated with microplastics, they too found the accumulated plastic could damage the immune system and upset a gut’s balance.

Cox says scientists are scrambling to understand the dose at which microplastics start to have noticeable health effects. Like air pollution or harmful construction materials, those who have more exposure or preexisting conditions may be less able to tolerate plastic.