Human brain samples collected during an autopsy in early 2024 contained more tiny bits of plastic than samples collected eight years earlier, according to a preprint posted online in May. A preprint is a study that has not yet been peer-reviewed and published in a journal.
"The concentrations we saw in the brain tissue of normal individuals, who had an average age of about 45 or 50 years old, were 4,800 micrograms per gram, or 0.5% by weight," said lead researcher Matthew Campen, a professor of pharmaceutical sciences at the University of New Mexico in Albuquerque.
"Compared to autopsy brain ...