It seems that nobody—and no body part—is safe from microplastics. In a recent study, researchers found traces of plastic in the testicles of both dogs and humans. The potential health impacts of this discovery are not yet clear, but the team suggests it may help explain why men’s sperm counts have declined over time.
The research was conducted by scientists at the University of New Mexico, led by Xiaozhong “John” Yu, a professor at UNM’s College of Nursing. Yu and his team have long been interested in studying how the environment can affect people’s reproductive systems. He had recently heard about from a separate UNM team that found microplastics in every human placenta that was tested.
That made him curious enough to look for microplastics elsewhere, specifically in testes. They decided to study dogs, too, since dogs tend to live with people and would have similar environmental exposures. The team analyzed anonymous samples of human testicular tissue preserved by the New Mexico Office of the Medical Investigator (in New Mexico, medical examiners will collect and store human tissue taken from autopsies for seven years).
They looked at dog samples collected from animal shelters and private veterinary clinics in the City of Albuquerque during neutering operations. In both dog and human testes, Yu and his team consistently found microplastics. Specifically, they found 12 types of microplastics across 47 samples from dogs and 23 samples from humans.
The average con.