Overview
- Mid-July 2026 research of 61 patients undergoing coronary angiography found micro‑ and nanoplastics in 84% of ST‑elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI) patients versus 40% with chronic coronary disease and 32% of controls.
- The team measured higher concentrations and greater polymer diversity in coronary blood, with polyethylene present in about 97% of samples that contained plastics, and STEMI patients showing raised IL‑6 and TNF‑α levels.
- Smoking and higher long‑term PM2.5 exposure were linked to detectable plastics in blood with smoking the only independent predictor on multivariable analysis (odds ratio 5.69, 95% CI 1.33–26.63).
- Experts and the authors stress major limitations: the study is small and observational, blood assays used pyrolysis‑GC‑MS and laser direct infrared spectroscopy that can be confounded by blood lipids, and contamination and analytic specificity remain disputed.
- The study adds to prior detections of plastics in human tissue and has policy implications by expanding the environmental 'exposome'; researchers call for larger prospective cohorts, harmonized sampling and validated analytic methods before drawing clinical or regulatory conclusions.