We can now add testicles to the list of places where microplastics have managed to spread – alongside , , , , , the , near the , and the . Research led by the University of New Mexico looked at testicular tissue taken from both dogs and humans, finding microplastics in every sample, with an abundance almost three times higher in humans than in dogs. The team found an average 122.
63 micrograms of microplastics per gram of tissue in canines, and 329.44 micrograms per gram in people. Besides giving us another sobering reminder of how plastic pollution is penetrating , the study raises some concerning questions in regards to how these microscopic fragments might impact male fertility.
"At the beginning, I doubted whether microplastics could penetrate the reproductive system," environmental health scientist Xiaozhong Yu from the University of New Mexico. "When I first received the results for dogs I was surprised. I was even more surprised when I received the results for humans.
" Among the 12 different types of microplastics identified, the plastic polymer the researchers found the most of, in both dogs and humans, was (PE) – used in the manufacture of plastic bags and , and a major contributor to our . While the human tissue couldn't be tested for sperm count, the researchers did do this for the canine samples. They found higher levels of (PVC) plastic correlated to a lower sperm count in the animals.
With PVC widely used for many industrial and household products, the worry .
