So a new study found the first evidence of microplastics
actually inside of penis tissue.
And scientists think that could be impacting male fertility.
In reality, microplastics are all over our bodies.
They've already been found in blood and in sperm.
And so it makes sense that they would also be
in penises.
But what are they doing there?
And how bad is it for our health?
I'm Hilary Brick, and I cover health at Business Insider.
Microplastics were found in a deep tissue inside the penis
called the corpus spongiosum,
and the surgeon tells me this is largely what's responsible
for erection.
So he's wondering, is there some sort of connection between
these plastics and the dysfunction?
Broadly speaking, the definition of a microplastic is
basically any piece of plastic that's less than
5mm wide. So this can mean just about anything can
become a microplastic or be a microplastic.
So there were two types of plastic that were the
most common that the researchers found in this study,
and those were PET, which is used in a lot
of food packaging,
and polypropylene, which is used to make bottle caps,
like water bottle caps. These microplastics are not something you're
going to see with the naked eye.
They're between 20 and 500 micrometers wide.
So that's like maybe one or two hairs.
The sample size for this study was pretty small.
It was done on six men,
all living in Miami and all struggling with erectile dysfunction.
And five of the men had microplastic in their penises,
but interestingly, one did not.
He's an older guy, a Cuban guy who lives in
Miami.
And, you know, he doesn't do that much takeout.
He kind of lives a traditional life.
He doesn't really use plastic water bottles that much,
kind of drinks from a cup and eats from a
plate.
It seems kind of counterintuitive that an older person would
have less plastic in their body because they've had more
time to swallow plastic.
But this is a trend other researchers have also found.
So there's something perhaps about our modern way of living
that is contributing to the fact that there's more microplastic
in our bodies.
The two main ways that scientists think that we are
getting microplastics inside of us are either by swallowing them
or inhaling them.
So either from the air or from eating,
drinking something. So it goes into your digestive tract and
then it travels down into your gut.
And then once it's in your gut,
it gets processed and it can enter the bloodstream and
that's when it can just really go.
So just about anywhere in your body,
including in testicles, not just penises,
but also semen, blood, the gut,
the brain. It's a little bit difficult to quantify how
much microplastic is in our body,
but one recent studies suggested our intake of microplastics has
increased 6 fold since 1990.
This is a trend that's expected to only continue.
Our global consumption of plastic is expected to triple by
2060,
so it's not like you can identify one source of
micro plastics.
They really are everywhere in everything.
Micro plastics are present in foods we eat and drinks
we consume.
So if you go out for it to go coffee,
there's a little plastic film inside your cup.
If you eat from a takeout container,
it's probably coated with a shiny coating.
The slice of pizza comes on a piece of paper
that might have some little micro plastics that you eat
in your pizza.
If you to drink water,
that can also have micro plastics in it,
either from the bottle cap,
it might pop off and get in there.
Another place that micro plastics come from is the clothes
we wear and when we do laundry.
So these little micro fibers,
all these sort of new and often improved fabrics that
can stretch and do various things,
when they get washed, those micro fibers will come out
of them.
There's a lot of microplastic in the air we breathe
as well.
It's incorporated into the household dust.
It's really kind of impossible to act like we could
ever get away from microplastics.
There are so many different chemicals inside of microplastics.
There's like more than 13,000,
but I will mention a few of the most common.
One of them is BPA or bisphenol.
ABPA is one of these endocrine disrupting chemicals that can
confuse our hormones and scientists have shown that it can
lead to more cancer or more obesity,
hyperactivity, decreased immunity, inability to fight off infections.
So it's one of these hormone disrupting chemicals that can
impact the way our body functions.
BPA was phased out of baby bottles a few years
ago in 2013,
and it's been increasingly phased out of the linings of
cans.
The FDA says that the level of BPA we're exposed
to in things like food packaging is safe,
but the research on this is still in its infancy.
Another chemical inside microplastic six is PFAS.
You might have heard of these called forever chemicals.
PFAS are a broad class of chemicals that are used
in all kinds of things,
from raincoats to Teflon to firefighting foam and food packaging.
PFAS are useful because they repel water and so you
can waterproof things or make things more leak proof or
nonstick.
And while they're really good at resisting grease and fire
and rain,
they are also really good at that's sticking around forever.
That's why they're called forever chemicals.
And they are also endocrine disruptors.
So they mess with the normal functioning of our hormones
and can cause some health problems.
They have been linked with lower birth rates,
lowered immunity, some obesity in children,
and also cancers, including testicular cancer.
Another type of chemical is called phthalates,
and these are really flexible,
pliable plastics. Independent experts are concerned about phthalates because there's
evidence they can influence reproductive development,
leading to more allergies, issues with development like more cases
of ADHD,
lower Iqs impacting brain development,
but also specifically for men,
that it might be tied to lower testosterone by having
an anti androgenic effect on the body.
Another plastic is PET. This is the stuff that a
lot of bottles and bottle caps are made from.
There's concerns that that when it gets really hot,
like above 100° can leach out some toxic chemicals,
that there could be harmful effects over time leaching out
of those bottles and bottle caps.
The bottom line is, whatever kind of plastic you're using,
it probably has some kind of chemical in it that
has some kind of impact on your hormones
and your health.
But there are a few things you can do to
avoid microplastics.
I've interviewed a lot of experts about microplastics over the
years,
and the one thing that everyone says is do not
microwave your plastic.
That's because when the plastic heats up,
it gives all those chemicals and potentially toxic things a
chance to leach out into the food you're eating or
the thing you're drinking.
My second tip for avoiding microplastics is to try to
avoid plastic takeout containers.
There's plastic water bottles and to go cups when you
can.
Just getting away from those and cooking more at home
when you can is really one of the best ways
to avoid microplastic in your food.
The third tip that I talked to experts about is
to vacuum regularly ventilate your house because a lot of
microplastic gets into the dust in our house.
And so if your house is less dusty,
less chance for you to be inhaling microplastics.
Some of the scientists I talked to who are most
concerned about some of the skin care that we use,
all of those artificial scents and fragrances that are in
there can have a lot of phthalates in them.
So they recommend trying to avoid super scented things and
trying to pick out more natural fibers when you can
and when the price is agreeable because a lot of
those synthetic materials that we wear have a lot of
plastic chemicals in them.
This last tip is one that pretty much any health
expert will tell you for anything and it's wash your
hands before you eat.
Getting the germs and the microplastics off your hands will
help keep more of them out of your body.
These plastics aren't just passing through us and,
you know, going out the other end,
they might be causing some damage while they're inside.
One of the leading microplastics researchers,
Tracy Woodruff at the University of California,
San Francisco, told me that she really feels like we're
at an inflection point with microplastics where we're starting to
learn more and more about them,
where they are and what they're doing in our bodies.
And she feels like this should really be a rallying
moment for people to and regulators to step up and
start to regulate the plastic industry,
much in the way that cigarettes were regulated in the
1960s.