A Spoonful of Plastic in the Brain

Imagine holding a plastic spoon. Now imagine that same spoon—ground into dust-sized fragments—lodged inside your brain. That’s what a new study suggests may already be happening.

Scientists at the University of New Mexico examined brain, liver, and kidney samples from people who died in 2016 and again in 2024. They found microplastics—tiny shards of broken-down plastic—in every single sample. By 2024, the average brain contained about seven grams of plastic, roughly the weight of a disposable spoon. Even more striking, the brains of people with dementia carried the highest levels.

Microplastics are everywhere. They flake off packaging, water bottles, clothing fibers—even the tires on our cars. As these bits break down, they become so small that we eat, drink, or breathe them in without noticing. Many measure less than 200 nanometers across. What shocked researchers was their ability to cross the blood-brain barrier, the body’s shield that normally blocks harmful invaders.

Why would the brain hold on to more plastic than other organs? One possibility is fat. The brain is nearly 60% fat, and plastic tends to cling to greasy surfaces. As one researcher put it, cleaning fat off plastic is tough—you’ve seen it if you’ve ever scrubbed a butter-stained container.

The big question is whether these plastics harm us. No one knows for sure. Some experts compare it to asbestos—long considered harmless until tiny fibers in the lungs were shown to spark decades of inflammation and disease. Microplastics could act the same way, quietly irritating the brain over time. Their presence is especially worrying given early hints of a link with neurological conditions like dementia.

There is a small bit of hope. The study showed that younger and older brains didn’t differ much in plastic levels, suggesting our bodies can clear some of these particles. If we reduce the plastic in our environment, future exposure may decline. But with plastic pollution doubling every 10 to 15 years, the trend is moving in the wrong direction.

For now, experts say it’s not realistic to avoid plastic entirely—it’s in our food, water, and even the air. But we can cut down by limiting single-use plastics, switching to glass or metal containers, and removing food from plastic packaging before cooking.

The discovery of a spoon’s worth of plastic in the brain is a wake-up call. It reminds us that the plastic we throw away doesn’t just pollute oceans and landscapes—it may be finding its way into the very organ that makes us who we are.