The Lancet Regional Health Europe in conversation with
Sep 23, 2026 · 26 min · 9 segments
Can a comparison of lungs from 1991 and 2024 show how plastic exposure is changing? In this episode of In Conversation With…, Evgenia Koutsouki, Senior Editor at The Lancet Group, speaks with Dr…
Francesco PrattichizzoGuest
Evgenia KoutsoukiHostWe mainly do research in the cardiovascular area since this is the main focus, uh, of the, of the, of this institution.
And, uh, our lines of research mainly cover, uh, two large micro areas, which are the, the, um, effect of cardiometabolic, uh, risk factor on the development of cardiovascular diseases, and a more recent line of research is the effect about, uh, different pollutants and mainly microplastics on, uh, the possible health-related effect of, uh, micro and nanoplastics with a focus on both, uh, lung function and cardiovascular health.
Uh, it's great to have you with us, and we can dive right into the questions now.
So recent studies have reported microplastics in different human tissues and in biological samples, for example, the brain and the lungs.
How should we interpret these findings? What do we know about their clinical significance?
Well, this is the, the key point probably because, mm, we have at least 20 or 30 maybe already papers demonstrating the presence of at least one type of micro or nanoplastics within at least one human organ.
And basically, almost every organ has already w- at least one preliminary proof of evidence of, uh, of the presence of micro or nanoplastics.
Uh, I mean, they have found them, uh, lung, brain, kidney, semen, testes, ovaries, carotid plaque we found in our previous studies, arteries, heart, and so on.
With available data, we only have, uh, preliminary evidence, associative evidence of the, with the incidence or prevalence of diseases only for the cardiovascular ar- area, basically.
Uh, relatively to the other, uh, organs, we only have evidence, uh, of, uh, mm, of the presence.
We don't know if this, uh, burden of microplastics is some at ... and to what extent is pathological.
With the exception of few preliminary study, one of them was published in, uh, eBioMedicine that demonstrate the presence, uh, of microplastics in the liver, and only, uh, in people with a diseased liver they were able to find microplastic, but these are preliminary evidence.
The question now is whether these plastics are harmful or not, but they are there.
We mainly do research in the cardiovascular area since this is the main focus, uh, of the, of the, of this institution.
And, uh, our lines of research mainly cover, uh, two large micro areas, which are the, the, um, effect of cardiometabolic, uh, risk factor on the development of cardiovascular diseases, and a more recent line of research is the effect about, uh, different pollutants and mainly microplastics on, uh, the possible health-related effect of, uh, micro and nanoplastics with a focus on both, uh, lung function and cardiovascular health.
Uh, it's great to have you with us, and we can dive right into the questions now.
So recent studies have reported microplastics in different human tissues and in biological samples, for example, the brain and the lungs.
How should we interpret these findings? What do we know about their clinical significance?
Well, this is the, the key point probably because, mm, we have at least 20 or 30 maybe already papers demonstrating the presence of at least one type of micro or nanoplastics within at least one human organ.
And basically, almost every organ has already w- at least one preliminary proof of evidence of, uh, of the presence of micro or nanoplastics.
Uh, I mean, they have found them, uh, lung, brain, kidney, semen, testes, ovaries, carotid plaque we found in our previous studies, arteries, heart, and so on.
With available data, we only have, uh, preliminary evidence, associative evidence of the, with the incidence or prevalence of diseases only for the cardiovascular ar- area, basically.
Uh, relatively to the other, uh, organs, we only have evidence, uh, of, uh, mm, of the presence.
We don't know if this, uh, burden of microplastics is some at ... and to what extent is pathological.
With the exception of few preliminary study, one of them was published in, uh, eBioMedicine that demonstrate the presence, uh, of microplastics in the liver, and only, uh, in people with a diseased liver they were able to find microplastic, but these are preliminary evidence.
The question now is whether these plastics are harmful or not, but they are there.
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