Open your kitchen cabinets, then your fridge, then look at the water bottle on your desk. Plastic touches almost everything most of us eat and drink in a day, and research increasingly suggests that’s worth paying attention to.

Microplastics are plastic particles smaller than 5 millimeters, down to fractions of a micron. Scientists have now found them in human blood, placental tissue, the gut, the lungs and even the brain, and there’s evidence they build up in tissue over time.

What we know so far

The honest answer is that the long-term health effects aren’t clear yet. Much of the evidence comes from animal and cell studies. Researchers have proposed ways microplastics could cause harm, including inflammation, oxidative stress, hormone disruption and changes in gut bacteria, but direct proof in people is still limited.

Some human findings are hard to ignore. A 2024 study in the New England Journal of Medicine followed patients who had plaque removed from their neck arteries. Those whose plaque contained microplastics had a higher risk of heart attack, stroke or death over the next few years. Follow-up lab work is looking at how these particles get into blood vessel cells.

You may have heard that the average person swallows a credit card’s worth of plastic a week. That figure comes from a 2019 estimate, and other researchers have argued it’s too high. Even so, the exposure is real and constant.

Since we can’t say it’s catastrophic and can’t say it’s nothing, cutting the easy, avoidable exposures is a sensible, low-cost step. Here’s where to start.

1. Drop plastic water bottles

Bottled water is one of the biggest daily sources. Twisting the cap, squeezing the bottle and leaving it in a hot car all break the plastic down into what you drink. Switch to stainless steel or glass refilled with filtered tap water. It usually tastes better and saves a surprising amount of money over a year.

2. Stop storing and heating food in plastic

Heat speeds up shedding, so microwaving leftovers in plastic or pouring hot soup into a plastic tub is the worst case. Fatty and acidic foods like tomato sauce and dressing pull more out, even in the fridge. Store food in glass or ceramic, and always move it to glass or ceramic before microwaving. “Microwave safe” means the container won’t melt, not that it won’t shed particles.

3. Eat less fast food

Wrappers, cups and containers are often lined with plastic, and the food is handled with plastic gloves, tongs and surfaces along the way. Hot, greasy food against plastic is close to a worst case for leaching. Making it an occasional meal instead of a routine one cuts exposure and helps your health in plenty of other ways.

4. Run a HEPA air purifier

Microplastics aren’t only in food. Synthetic carpet, furniture, clothing and house dust shed fibers into the air, and indoor air often carries more than outdoor air. A HEPA purifier traps fine particles, including many of these fibers. Start with the bedroom, where you spend about a third of your life.

5. Cook with stainless steel or cast iron

Many nonstick pans use polymer coatings that wear down with scratches, high heat and age, shedding particles into food even when the damage is too small to see. Stainless steel and cast iron have no coating to lose, and cast iron can add a little dietary iron as a bonus.

6. Use a wooden cutting board

Every knife stroke on a plastic board shaves off tiny particles, and research has found that chopping vegetables on plastic can transfer a large number of them into the food. Wood or bamboo boards don’t shed plastic. Oil them now and then so they don’t crack.

A reasonable way to think about it

None of this gets you to zero. Microplastics are in the air, soil, water and food chain, including foods we think of as clean, like seafood and sea salt. The goal is to cut your biggest, most avoidable sources, especially where heat, acid and repeated contact with food are involved. Small swaps add up over years, and they cost little.

For us, this is part of caring for the bodies and homes God has entrusted to us, without living in fear of every container.

“And the LORD God took the man, and put him into the garden of Eden to dress it and to keep it.” (Genesis 2:15, KJV)

If you’re worried about environmental exposure and have symptoms like ongoing fatigue, brain fog or unexplained inflammation, talk with your doctor rather than relying on lifestyle changes alone.
Sources: Marfella et al., “Microplastics and Nanoplastics in Atheromas and Cardiovascular Events,” NEJM, March 2024 · WWF / University of Newcastle, “No Plastic in Nature” (2019) · Yadav et al., chopping boards as a source of microplastics, Environmental Science & Technology (2023).