REVIEW article
Front. Public Health
Sec. Environmental Health and Exposome
Volume 13 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fpubh.2025.1567200
This article is part of the Research TopicNew Environmental Pollutants, Aging, and Age-Related DiseasesView all 5 articles
Microplastics and Human Health: Unraveling the Toxicological Pathways and Implications for Public Health
Provisionally accepted
- Second Affiliated Hospital of Nanchang University, Nanchang, China
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The increasing prevalence of microplastics (MPs) in the environment has raised urgent concerns regarding their implications for human health. This comprehensive review integrates recent findings on the sources, classification, and pathways of MPs into the human body, highlighting their potential cellular toxicity and systemic health risks. We discuss the mechanisms by which MPs may induce inflammatory responses, oxidative stress, and cellular damage, thereby contributing to various diseases. Notably, we examine the synergistic effects of MPs in conjunction with other environmental pollutants, which may amplify their adverse health outcomes. This synthesis of current research underscores the critical need for multidisciplinary approaches to investigate the multifaceted interactions between MPs and human health, ultimately guiding future studies and informing public health strategies to mitigate exposure and associated risks.
Keywords: Microplastics, Human health, Cellular toxicity, Environmental Pollutants, systemic health risk
Received: 26 Jan 2025; Accepted: 30 May 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Zhang, Yu, Wang and Yang. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence:
Xu Zhang, Second Affiliated Hospital of Nanchang University, Nanchang, China
Chunping Yang, Second Affiliated Hospital of Nanchang University, Nanchang, China
Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.