Although this is a scary number, it is worth considering this comes from one hospital and 10 patients. It is a strong hint to pursue research in this area but I wouldn't call it a proof yet
this post was submitted on 23 Feb 2026
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It’s also worth noting that microplastics appear in basically all body tissue, including the brain, when looking at samples from cadavers in recent years. I don’t remember the name offhand but one study found enough microplastics in the average brain to make a plastic spoon.
So this might be more of a correlative thing, hopefully. Because the world ain’t stopping with plastic everything
one study found enough microplastics in the average brain to make a plastic spoon
What the fuck does this mean for Spoon Theory‽
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90% of non-cancerous prostates too.
%90 of human tissues probably contain microplastics. title sounds like baity. Is it significantly less or more than other tissues is the question.
The article states that cancerous areas had ~2.5x more microplastics than the surrounding non-cancerous areas. It could be a chicken and egg/correlation≠causation situation, (is cancer caused by microplastics, or do cancerous cells attract microplastics?) but the article does outline that cancer cells clearly had more microplastics.
Cancerous tumors tend to siphon more resources than healthy cells. It's not surprising that they'd have a higher concentration of microplastics
It should still be compared to differences in other resources being transported to the tissue, see my answer below. I am not a fan of microplastics, I don't try to discredit their health effects. It is just that this much information does not help much. I understand that causation would be much harder to prove, but at least one should try to prove for instance that ratio of cancerous to healthy tissue microplastics is much higher than the same ratio other for other stuff that tissues generally transport by blood vessels. This would atleast show that there is an extraordinary relation between the tissue and microplastics in the context of cancer. It could still be causation on the other direction, such as "maybe tissue structure of prostate cancer allows it to absorb microplastics more than other types of resources" but even that would be a useful piece of information.
Potentially, as cancer cells don't switch off and die the same way, they have a longer lifespan to accumulate microplastics. Especially if the body's disposal of dead cells actually manages to clear at least some of the microplastics from the body.
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And 100% contain dihydrogen monoxide.
Doesn’t everything everywhere contain microplastics? Brains, the rain, livers, ovaries, the external ovaries that guys have, blood, bone marrow.
I'm pretty sure that 90% of all biomass in general contains microplastics these days.
Goddamn. This is probably why prostate cancer is sky rocketing. I am pretty sure I got it, but I doubt I can afford to get checked. Wothless fucking life anyway.
That's horrible, I'm sorry you're going through that. Is there not any free way to get it checked out in your country?
I am trying. But my state is facing heavy brain drain. And honestly it's taking all I got to even care right now.
My mom is sick too. She keeps denying it. And wants to visit Hawaii which we have been trying for years to set up and now is our last chance and I simply can't even live with myself if I let that chance go.
Dr.'s hate this one trick - tell them you're facing issues peeing and you'll get recommended to a urologist. Even with my family history of prostate cancer I couldn't get one until I started having issues with my stream. Sure enough my prostate is slightly enlarged even at 40 and am now on meds for it.
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In the US the process is to become too sick to work so you qualify for government assistance and hope some part of your safety net can keep you out of homelessness and cross your fingers for filling out paperwork correctly.
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correlation doesnt equal causation. CANCER cell in general have higher metabolic energy requirements, so they intake more(pump) in the surrouding environment to fuel thier uncontrolled cell division, so naturally microplastics on the outside of the cell would be pumped into the cell along with nutrients it stealing at higher than normal tissue to fuel its growth.
I agree with you, but with the carcinogenic nature of aryl compounds used in, and as by-products of, the polymerization and hardening/softening of plastics, the incidence of plastics in cells could in turn turn them cancerous, and thus increase the rate at which they draw nutrients and microplastics from the vascular system.
One may not necessarily cause the other, but they are overwhelmingly correlated - beyond the point of suspicion.
It would be interesting to see a study comparing other types of cancers, their microplastic levels, and the microplastic levels of other cells in progressively radiating distances from the cancerous cells.
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https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2026/jan/13/microplastics-human-body-doubt
TL;DR: science currently has no efficient way to actually measure microplastic content with being able to control for outside contaminants
edit: please read the other comments below!
IIRC, there's a harder, trusted process for measurement. But an easier method that has gained widespread adoption, and that method is what has been called into question.
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All tumours, no exception, contain dihydrogen monoxide.
Notably, tumor tissue contained significantly more plastic. On average, cancerous samples had about 2.5 times the concentration found in healthy prostate tissue (about 40 micrograms of plastic per gram of tissue compared with 16 micrograms per gram).
Sure, though it's to be expected that everything contains water in the body. To expect microplastics, however, is kind of different -- leaving aside their showing a legitimate difference in microplastic quantity between healthy and unhealthy prostates.
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Researchers also found that these fragments appeared in greater amounts inside cancerous tumors than in nearby noncancerous prostate tissue.
For those who want to give an opinion based on even a smidge more than just the title.
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Notably, tumor tissue contained significantly more plastic. On average, cancerous samples had about 2.5 times the concentration found in healthy prostate tissue (about 40 micrograms of plastic per gram of tissue compared with 16 micrograms per gram).
Still, correlation does not imply causation. It might just be that because of the nature of what tumors are, they get stuck with more microplastics. The biggest problem with this study is that there are known carcinogens in some types of plastics over others, and it seems to outright choose to dismiss any attempt at distinction for the sake of the microplastic boogieman.
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Plastic seems to I be a massive problem
I think that it'll be the final nail in humanity's coffin.
Climate Change is really bad, but humans are going to survive it, although in greatly reduced numbers for a long time.
But plastics currently have a measured negative impact on fertility rates. Can't survive as a species if you can't reproduce.
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They are also found everywhere else, what does such statement try to imply?
If you read the article, the concentration was 2.5x higher than non-cancerous tissue. That's a statistically significant increase.
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