MICROPLASTICS
A human problem. Not just an environmental one.
Over the last decade, peer-reviewed studies have detected microplastics and nanoplastics in nearly every human tissue. These insights have shifted the question from "how far have they invaded?" to "what harm do they cause?"
THE SHIFT
From 2 to 430 million tonnes a year.
Plastic production has grown 215× since 1950. That amount is hard to picture, so here are some ways to think about it — compared to landmarks, plastic Doppelgängers, and total stock:
EIFFEL TOWER EQUIVALENTS
1 every 12 minutes
PLASTIC PER PERSON, PER YEAR
~120 pounds
PLASTIC MADE SINCE 1950
~10 billion tonnes
Where all the plastic ends up
OECD Global Plastics Outlook (2022) →50%
Buried in landfills not designed for materials that don’t biodegrade. Slowly fragments over decades — a major source of the microplastic eventually found in groundwater and surrounding soil.
FRAGMENTATION
Plastic doesn’t disappear. It multiplies.
Heat, sunlight, and mechanical wear progressively break larger plastics into smaller pieces. A single 100 μm microplastic has the mass of ~1 billion 100 nm nanoplastics.
Why this matters:
01 / Mobility
They don't settle out.
Larger fragments fall to the ocean floor, the soil, the sidewalk. Nanoplastics stay suspended in air, water, and biological fluids — persisting and traveling around the globe.
02 / Surface area
They are more reactive.
As particles fracture, surface area grows dramatically. Nanoplastics bind biological molecules far more readily than microplastics of the same chemistry.
03 / Barrier crossing
Smaller than a cell.
At nanometer scale, particles can cross intestinal tissue and, in some studies, the blood-brain barrier. Once across, synthetic polymers resist enzymatic breakdown — and accumulate.
DETECTION IN THE BODY
Where they've been found, in human samples.
Each entry below is a peer-reviewed direct detection of plastic particles in human tissue. Switch between systems to filter by anatomical context. Click any point to learn more.
Estimate my exposure →
IN THE KITCHEN
Particle burden, food by food.
Plastics in our food and drink are no longer deniable. They enter through production, processing, and packaging. What’s less clear is the total load. Most research reports exposure in particles, a measure that shifts with size and method.
AFTER ENTRY
The gut is one of the first places plastics impact the body.
Many microplastics enter the body through the gastrointestinal tract. More than fifty studies now show that exposure can shift the gut microbiome, with consistent declines in three key bacterial families tied to barrier integrity, immune signaling, and metabolic health.
Lactobacillaceae
support barrier integrity, pathogen exclusion, and short-chain fatty acid production.
Bifidobacteriaceae
important for mucin metabolism and immune support.
Akkermansiaceae
a mucin-degrading specialist linked to metabolic and barrier health.
The deeper question isn't who declines, but what the gut loses: butyrate production, mucus support, barrier repair, immune balance. The microbiome isn't a list of tenants. It's a metabolic organ.
DAILY SUPPORT
The gut is where Winnow works.
Eight probiotic strains selected for documented in-vitro binding affinity across the five most common plastics, with three clinically studied for gut-barrier and immune support. Plastic-free packaging. 200+ contaminants tested per batch.
A GLOBAL SIGNAL
Nearly every country on Earth is studying microplastics.
65,864 peer-reviewed papers. 191 contributing nations — essentially every country with research infrastructure. ~75% of those papers were published in just the last five years. That's a signal to keep watching.
Top 5 nations account for ~47% of indexed papers. The remaining 186 countries contribute the rest.
Browse the research →GO DEEPER
From the Winnow Journal.