Study: Microplastics Found in Brain

The Facts

• New research from scientists based in Brazil and published in the journal JAMA Network Open has found microplastics in the brain tissue of deceased people.

• The study analyzed the corpses of 12 men and three women, all of whom died between the ages of 33 and 100. They found eight of them contained microplastics — 5.5-26.4 micrometers (1/25,000th of an inch) in size — in the brain's olfactory bulb, the part that processes smell.