PORTSMOUTH – Researchers at the University of Portsmouth have found that the amount of microplastics in our homes is 100 times higher than previously predicted.
Academics, working with the Good Morning Britain (GMB) news programme, assessed the volume of microplastics in one reporter’s family home and found carpets, non-cotton bed linen and soft toys amongst the items to shed these contaminants.
Professor Anoop Jivan Chauhan MBE, respiratory specialist and director of research and innovation at Portsmouth Hospitals University NHS Trust, said: “Potentially we each inhale or swallow up to 1.8 million microplastics every year and once in the body, it’s hard to imagine they’re not doing irreversible damage. There can be no health benefits of inhaling microplastics; they’re dangerous and we need more research like this to fully understand how they can harm our bodies.”
