Microplastics: The Pollution of the 21st Century? What They're Doing in Your Body, and How to Reduce and Remove Them

"For decades, we were told cigarettes were safe — because the harm had not yet been proven. It had simply not been proven yet. Microplastics are foreign particles our bodies were never designed to hold. We do not need to wait for absolute proof to act wisely."

— Dr Eugene Pretorius, Cancer SA Centurion

From Dr Eugene Pretorius

Let me be honest with you from the first sentence: we cannot yet prove that microplastics cause cancer. Anyone who tells you they definitely do is going beyond the evidence. Anyone who tells you they definitely don't is doing exactly the same thing.

But I want you to remember something. In 1950, two British scientists proved, with rigorous data, that smoking causes lung cancer. The official warning did not come until 1964 — fourteen years later. For those fourteen years, the tobacco industry repeated one comforting phrase: "it hasn't been proven." And during that gap, millions of people kept smoking, and millions died.¹²

The lesson of the 20th century is this: "not proven yet" is not the same as "safe." When a brand-new, man-made substance spreads into every human body on earth in the space of a single generation — and we are living through a genuine, unexplained surge in cancer, especially in young people — the wise response is not to wait for certainty. It is to reduce the exposure now, while the science catches up.

This article is that response. First, the honest science. Then — and this is the part that matters most — what you can actually do about it.

From the Ocean to Your Blood: A 50-Year Story

Microplastics are not new. What is new is finding them inside us.

• 1972 — Scientists first documented plastic particles drifting across the western Atlantic, in the journal Science. Brittle little pellets, weathering and fragmenting on the ocean surface. For most people, plastic pollution was still just "litter on the beach."¹
• 2004 — A marine biologist named Richard Thompson coined the word "microplastics" in Science. For the next fifteen years, this was mostly a problem for oceanographers and marine life — not doctors.²
• 2018–2019 — The turning point for medicine. Microplastics were found, for the first time, in human stool. Suddenly this was no longer an ocean story. It was in us.³
• 2021 — Researchers found microplastics in the human placenta — in the tissue that nourishes an unborn child. They called the study "Plasticenta."⁴
• 2022 — Microplastics were discovered circulating in human blood — proof that these particles travel through the whole body.⁵
• 2024–2025 — They were found in artery plaque, the brain, and tumour tissue — and, disturbingly, brain levels appear to be rising over time.⁶⁷

Think about that timeline. A pollutant we have watched drift across the oceans since 1972, named only in 2004, and discovered inside our own blood, brains and placentas in just the past few years. Medicine has barely begun to study this. That is not a reason to relax — it is a reason to be humble and cautious.

Where They Are Found in the Body

The list grows longer every year. Microplastics and their tinier cousins, nanoplastics, have now been detected in the human blood, heart, major arteries, lungs, liver, kidneys, gut, testes, placenta, breast milk, and brain.

Two findings stand out:

• The brain. A 2025 study in Nature Medicine measured microplastics in the brains of people who had died, and found startling concentrations — with brain tissue holding far more than the liver or kidney, largely as nanoscale shards. Even more concerning, samples from 2024 contained more plastic than samples from 2016. The levels are climbing.⁷
• The arteries. In 2024, a landmark study in the New England Journal of Medicine — one of the most respected journals in all of medicine — examined plaque removed from patients' carotid arteries. Those whose plaque contained microplastics had a 4.5 times higher risk of heart attack, stroke, or death over the next three years. This was the moment mainstream medicine truly sat up and took notice.⁶

The Cancer Question — Handled Honestly

Here is exactly where the science stands, without spin.

What we do not yet know

There is no proof, in humans, that microplastics cause cancer. The World Health Organization has reviewed the evidence and concluded it is not yet sufficient to establish a clear human health risk. Most of the strongest evidence comes from laboratory and animal studies, not long-term human trials. I will not overstate this to frighten you.

What the correlation is telling us

But the signals are accumulating, and they point in one direction:

• A 2025 review in Molecular Cancer found that microplastics concentrate more heavily in tumour tissue than in the surrounding healthy tissue, across lung, colorectal, gastric, breast, cervical, pancreatic, prostate and other cancers.⁸
• A 2024 study detected and measured microplastics directly inside human tumours from patients with lung, gastric, colorectal, cervical and pancreatic cancer.⁹
• A 2025 case-control study of over 750 people found that those with the highest levels of microplastics in their stool had a dramatically higher likelihood of colorectal cancer — with a clear dose-response pattern (more plastic, more risk).¹⁰

The rise that no one can fully explain

Now hold that beside another fact. Between 1990 and 2019, new cancer cases in people under the age of 50 rose by 79% worldwide — a genuine, well-documented surge that has cancer researchers deeply worried.¹¹

To be completely fair: the scientists who documented that rise attribute it mainly to diet, obesity, alcohol, tobacco and inactivity — not to microplastics. Microplastics are not on their list. I am not going to pretend otherwise.

But consider the timing. This exponential rise in early cancer has happened over exactly the same decades that plastic production exploded and microplastics saturated our food, water and air. The mechanisms by which plastics could contribute to cancer are all plausible and documented. Microplastics as a contributing factor cannot be ruled out. And "cannot be ruled out," for a substance now sitting in every one of our bodies, is a serious statement.

This is precisely the position medicine was in with cigarettes in the 1940s: a plausible cause, a rising disease, mechanisms that made sense — and not yet the decades of proof. We know how that story ended. We do not have to repeat the mistake of waiting.

Why They May Harm Us

Microplastics are not inert little specks that simply pass through. Laboratory and animal research points to several ways they can damage cells:⁸

• Oxidative stress. They trigger an overproduction of reactive oxygen species — unstable molecules that damage DNA. Damaged DNA that isn't repaired is the seed of cancer.
• Chronic inflammation. The body treats these particles as foreign invaders it cannot break down, driving persistent low-grade inflammation — a well-known driver of cancer.
• Endocrine disruption. Plastics carry chemical additives such as bisphenols (BPA) and phthalates, which mimic oestrogen and interfere with your hormones. These are linked to hormone-driven cancers of the breast and prostate.
• Heavy metals riding along. Because of their vast surface area, microplastics act as sponges for toxic heavy metals like lead and cadmium, ferrying them into the body where they can be released — a point we will return to.¹³

Here is the deeper principle behind how I think about this as an integrative doctor: your body was designed to recognise and process substances that occur in nature. It has no enzyme, no pathway, no evolutionary experience for a synthetic polymer. When you cannot break something down and cannot easily excrete it, it lingers — and things that linger have time to do harm.

Step 1: Stop the Intake — the Single Biggest Thing You Can Do

You cannot control the plastic in the ocean. But you can dramatically cut what enters your body — and this is by far the most effective step, because it stops the problem getting worse every single day.

• Ditch bottled water. A 2024 study using new imaging technology found that a single litre of bottled water contains around 240,000 plastic particles — about 90% of them nanoplastics small enough to enter your cells. Filtered tap water in a glass or stainless-steel bottle is vastly cleaner.¹⁴
• Never heat food in plastic. Heat is what makes plastic leach. Do not microwave in plastic containers, and don't pour boiling water into plastic. Transfer food to glass or ceramic first.
• Rethink your tea bags. Many "silky" tea bags are plastic mesh that can shed billions of particles into a single cup of hot tea. Choose loose-leaf tea with a stainless-steel infuser, or paper/unbleached bags.
• Store in glass and steel, not plastic — especially for hot, oily or acidic foods, which draw plastic out fastest.
• Wear natural fibres. Polyester, nylon and acrylic clothing shed microfibres you breathe in at home. Cotton, wool, linen and hemp do not.
• Eat fewer ultra-processed, heavily packaged foods. The more plastic your food touches on its journey to your plate, the more it carries.
• Vacuum and ventilate. Household dust is a surprisingly large source of inhaled microplastics; fresh air and regular cleaning help.

Step 2: Help Your Body Clear What's Already There

Now the honest part that most "detox" marketing won't tell you: there is currently no proven medical treatment that removes solid microplastics already lodged in your tissues. Be very sceptical of any product promising to "flush out microplastics."

That said, your body does clear some of them naturally — through stool and urine — and there are sensible, evidence-informed ways to support that clearance and reduce how much gets absorbed in the first place. A 2025 review in Biomedical Engineering Letters maps out where this science currently stands.¹⁵

• Eat plenty of fibre. This is the best-supported step. A high-fibre diet (vegetables, legumes, oats, seeds, whole fruits) speeds everything through the gut, reducing how long microplastics sit there and how much is absorbed — and increasing what leaves in the stool.¹⁵
• Consider targeted probiotics. This is genuinely promising. In animal studies, certain probiotic strains — notably Lactobacillus plantarum — physically bound microplastics and increased their excretion in the stool, while reducing the oxidative damage they cause. Fermented foods (kimchi, sauerkraut, plain yoghurt, kefir) and a healthy gut microbiome support this.¹⁶
• Natural binders. Modified citrus pectin and chlorella have strong evidence for binding and helping excrete heavy metals, and early promise for binding plastics and their chemicals in the gut. The human microplastic-specific evidence is still limited — I mention them as reasonable, low-risk options, not proven cures.
• Stay well hydrated. Your kidneys clear some nanoplastics in urine; good hydration supports that pathway.
• Sweat out the chemicals (not the particles). Sweating and sauna will not remove solid plastic particles — they are too large and embedded. But controlled studies show that sweat does excrete the plastic-associated chemicals — BPA and phthalates — sometimes better than urine does. So a good sweat helps with the endocrine-disrupting chemicals, even if not the plastic itself.¹⁷
• Protect against the damage. Antioxidant-rich foods and nutrients — colourful vegetables and fruit, and compounds like astaxanthin, sulforaphane (broccoli sprouts) and melatonin — help neutralise the oxidative stress microplastics generate. This doesn't remove them, but it blunts their harm.

Step 3: Reducing the Heavy Metals That Ride Along — Where EDTA Fits

Patients often ask me whether EDTA chelation — a therapy we offer here at Cancer SA — can remove microplastics. I want to answer this precisely, because the honest answer is more useful than a marketing one.

EDTA does not remove microplastic particles. EDTA is a chelator: it grabs hold of metal ions — lead, cadmium, mercury, arsenic — and carries them out through the kidneys. Microplastics are carbon-based polymers, not metals, so they fall completely outside how EDTA works. Anyone claiming chelation "detoxes plastic" is overstating the science.

But there is a real and important connection. As I mentioned earlier, microplastics act as carriers for heavy metals — their enormous surface area adsorbs toxic metals from the environment, and plastics themselves contain metal-based additives that can leach out in the body. Metals and microplastics together cause more oxidative stress and inflammation than either does alone.¹³

So while EDTA won't clear the plastic, it can meaningfully reduce the toxic heavy-metal burden that travels with plastic pollution — removing one arm of the total load your body is carrying. That is a legitimate, evidence-based reason it forms part of an integrative approach to lightening the body's overall toxic burden, alongside the reduction and clearance steps above.

Read more about EDTA chelation & heavy-metal detox

The 2026 Frontier — Exciting, but Early

Science is racing to catch up with this problem. A few developments are worth knowing about — with honest expectations attached.

• Nattokinase. This enzyme, from fermented soybeans, has real evidence for breaking down arterial plaque, improving cholesterol and thinning the blood. Because microplastics have been found inside artery plaque, some hope nattokinase might help clear them too. Be clear-eyed: there is no direct evidence nattokinase removes microplastics. It is a promising cardiovascular supplement — the plastic connection is a hopeful theory, not a proven fact.¹⁸
• Plastic-eating enzymes (PETase). Remarkably, enzymes that can break down PET plastic have been discovered — and one was even found in the human saliva microbiome, hinting that our bodies may already be adapting to a plastic world. For now these are environmental and industrial tools, not human treatments — but it is a fascinating frontier.¹⁹
• Catalytic nanoparticles ("nanozymes") that can fragment microplastics into smaller, metabolisable molecules are being developed in the laboratory. Genuinely promising — and years away from your clinic.¹⁵

The Honest Bottom Line

Let me bring it together plainly:

• Microplastics are now inside all of us — in our blood, brains, and even the placentas of unborn children.
• We cannot prove they cause cancer in humans. But the correlation is real and growing, the mechanisms are plausible, and against a genuine surge in cancer, their role cannot be ruled out.
• There is no magic detox. Ignore products that promise to flush out microplastics.
• What genuinely works: reduce your intake (the single biggest lever), support your body's natural clearance with fibre, probiotics, hydration and antioxidants, and lighten the wider toxic load — including the heavy metals that travel with plastics.

It is always better to remove a foreign substance than to live with it — and always better to stop taking in more. You do not need to live in fear. You need to make a handful of simple, sensible changes, and let your body do what it does best when you stop overwhelming it.

References

1. Carpenter, E.J. & Smith, K.L. (1972). "Plastics on the Sargasso Sea Surface." Science, 175(4027), 1240–1241. Science
2. Thompson, R.C. et al. (2004). "Lost at Sea: Where Is All the Plastic?" Science, 304(5672), 838. (The paper that coined the term "microplastics".) Science
3. Schwabl, P. et al. (2019). "Detection of Various Microplastics in Human Stool: A Prospective Case Series." Annals of Internal Medicine, 171(7), 453–457. Annals of Internal Medicine
4. Ragusa, A. et al. (2021). "Plasticenta: First evidence of microplastics in human placenta." Environment International, 146, 106274. Environment International
5. Leslie, H.A. et al. (2022). "Discovery and quantification of plastic particle pollution in human blood." Environment International, 163, 107199. Environment International
6. Marfella, R. et al. (2024). "Microplastics and Nanoplastics in Atheromas and Cardiovascular Events." New England Journal of Medicine, 390(10), 900–910. NEJM
7. Nihart, A.J. et al. (2025). "Bioaccumulation of microplastics in decedent human brains." Nature Medicine, 31(4), 1114–1119. Nature Medicine
8. "Microplastics as emerging carcinogens: from environmental pollutants to oncogenic drivers." (2025). Molecular Cancer, 24, 248. PubMed Central
9. Zhao, Q. et al. (2024). "Detection and quantification of microplastics in various types of human tumor tissues." Ecotoxicology and Environmental Safety. ScienceDirect
10. "Associations between microplastics in human feces and colorectal cancer risk." (2025). Journal of Hazardous Materials. (Case-control study; 258 colorectal cancer patients vs 493 controls.) Journal of Hazardous Materials
11. Zhao, J. et al. (2023). "Global trends in incidence, death, burden and risk factors of early-onset cancer from 1990 to 2019." BMJ Oncology, 2, e000049. (Early-onset cancer up 79% worldwide, 1990–2019.) BMJ Oncology
12. Doll, R. & Hill, A.B. (1950). "Smoking and Carcinoma of the Lung: Preliminary Report." British Medical Journal, 2(4682), 739–748. (The link was proven in 1950; the US Surgeon General did not warn the public until 1964.) PubMed Central
13. "Adsorption of lead and cadmium by microplastics and their desorption behavior as vectors in the gastrointestinal environment." (2022). Journal of Environmental Chemical Engineering. ScienceDirect
14. Qian, N. et al. (2024). "Rapid single-particle chemical imaging of nanoplastics by SRS microscopy." Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), 121(3), e2300582121. (~240,000 particles per litre of bottled water.) PNAS
15. "Microplastics in human body: accumulation, natural clearance, and biomedical detoxification strategies." (2025). Biomedical Engineering Letters. Springer
16. "Novel probiotics adsorbing and excreting microplastics in vivo show potential gut health benefits." (2024). Frontiers in Microbiology, 15, 1522794. PubMed Central
17. Genuis, S.J. et al. (2012). "Human Excretion of Bisphenol A: Blood, Urine, and Sweat (BUS) Study." Journal of Environmental and Public Health, 2012, 185731. (Companion phthalate study: J Environ Public Health, 2012.) PubMed Central
18. "Research Progress of Nattokinase in Reducing Blood Lipid and Anti-Atherosclerosis." (2025). Nutrients, 17(11), 1784. Nutrients (MDPI)
19. White, M.F.M. & Wallace, S. (2023). "A New PETase from the Human Saliva Metagenome and Its Functional Modification via Genetic Code Expansion in Bacteria." Angewandte Chemie International Edition. (A PET-degrading enzyme identified in the human oral microbiome.) PubMed Central

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This article is for educational purposes and does not constitute medical advice. It is based on publicly available peer-reviewed research and, where noted, on findings that are still emerging or unproven. No causal link between microplastics and human cancer has been established. Always consult your treating doctor before starting any supplement or therapy, especially during active cancer treatment. Cancer SA has no relationship with, and receives no funding from, any supplement, water-filter, or product manufacturer.