Carlos Edo

Most research on the presence of plastics in the seas has focused on macro- and microplastics. Now, an international team has analyzed the presence of nanoplastics - smaller in size - in different locations and depths of the North Atlantic Ocean, including areas near the European coasts. The results suggest that these may account for the majority fraction of the total mass of plastic in the oceans and that the total mass of marine plastic may be greater than previously thought. The work is published in the journal Nature. 

An article reviews evidence on the accumulation of microplastics in human brain tissue recently published in Nature Medicine. The authors highlight practical measures to reduce exposure, noting that switching from bottled water to filtered tap water could reduce microplastic intake from 90,000 to 4,000 particles per year. The paper is a commentary in Brain Medicine.