DA Johnson et al. Am J Gastroenterol 2025; DOI: 10.14309/ajg.0000000000003417. Plastics: Here, There, and Everywhere: Implications for Gastrointestinal Health and Disease
This article reviews the growing health concerns regarding microplastics and nanoplastics (MNPs) specifically regarding the GI tract.
Key points:
- “As these [plastic] products degrade, they break down into smaller particles, forming microplastics (< 5 microm) and nanoplastics (<1 microm), collectively referred to as
MNPs” - “Although many plastic products are deemed recyclable, in the United States, less than 10% are actually recycled…annual global production projected to reach 1.1 billion tons by 2025. Simultaneously, over 12 billion tons of plastic wastes are expected to accumulate in landfills”
- “The average American ingests approximately 5g of plastic per week, equivalent to 1 credit card, and 39,000–50,000 particles annually”
- Potential association of MNPs with metabolic-associated steatotic liver disease, liver and pancreatic cancer and inflammatory bowel disease. “Studies have reported
significantly higher levels of MNPs in patients with IBD compared with healthy controls.”
In a related article in Gastroenterology and Endoscopy News (October 2025), Dr. Johnson noted that “reduction of plastic intake from bottled water to tap water in one study reduced microplastic intake, the number of particles within human tissues, from 90,000 to 4,000…Avoid heating food in plastics…the effect of microwave increased the evidence of microplastics by over 4.2 million and the nanoplastics, 2 billion, just in three minutes in the microwave.”
My take: Something that almost everyone could agree on – they would like less plastic in their food and environment. How to achieve this is much more difficult.
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