By Sofia Johansson, Campaign Coordinator at Plastic Pollution Coalition
Research is just beginning to expose the plastic in our bodies. But it feels like with every new study, we need to be ringing the emergency bells even louder on this public health crisis.
We’ve all seen the headlines—plastic, its production and its toxic chemicals, have been linked to asthma, cancer, dementia, diabetes, hormone disruption, infertility, and much more. It’s a long list. And sometimes, despite the severity, it’s almost so overwhelming it’s easier to just think of it that way: an innocuous list.
That may be especially true if, like me, you’ve been privileged enough not to live on the frontlines of petrochemical plants, incineration sites, or waste dumps, where plastic’s suffocation is simply unignorable. But it’s a mistake to think that this crisis is not deeply personal for each one of us, and an even graver flaw to not recognize that everyone’s health and well-being are fundamentally tied together. Plastic pollution knows no borders—neither body nor country.
And personal reckoning can come at any time. For me, that time is now.
As winter progressed this year, blood in the toilet, abdominal pain, and nausea were becoming a daily nuisance. I spent weeks wishing things would resolve themselves, not wanting to upend my life as health problems have done before. But my symptoms hit a breaking point.
An urgent care visit escalated to the ER, which led to a colonoscopy the same week. The days leading up to it were a self-inflicted crash course in colon diseases and Reddit horror stories. At 22 years old, my first colonoscopy came much sooner than I’d ever anticipated.
They were able to rule out perhaps the worst outcome of colon cancer, landing on a still troubling diagnosis of ulcerative colitis. For the unacquainted (as I was mere months ago), ulcerative colitis is one of the two main types of inflammatory bowel disease and causes chronic inflammation and ulcers in the lining of the colon. It is also an autoimmune disease.
I was lucky to have been seen and diagnosed so quickly. From our lack of universal healthcare to disparities in access and quality of care, it’s a disturbingly rare occurrence in the U.S. And even with immense systemic privileges, my last major health journey was the more typically long and complicated road.
Four years ago, my first year of college was similarly rerouted by a slew of doctor’s visits, trying to find an answer to another long set of symptoms I’d been experiencing for months. Until the end of the school year, I’d be tested for all sorts of things: diabetes, kidney disease, thyroid problems—I even ended up having an MRI for a suspected pituitary gland tumor. It was frustrating and exhausting, but eventually I was diagnosed with celiac disease.
Now, I’m adjusting to life with two chronic autoimmune diseases and the real potential for more. As many do, I’m left asking why.
What Are Autoimmune Diseases?
To take a step back, it’s important to understand what an autoimmune disease is. When your immune system is working, it keeps you healthy by attacking harmful invaders, like viruses and bacteria, that may cause infection or disease. In autoimmune diseases, the immune system mistakenly identifies healthy cells in the body as invaders and makes antinuclear antibodies (ANA) to attack the tissues, organs, and cells. There are no cures for autoimmune diseases, only treatments and medications to manage the lifelong symptoms. And if you have one, it increases your risk of developing another.
The causes of autoimmune disease are largely unknown and even harder to pinpoint in a single case. But rates are rising rapidly, especially among young people. A recent study showed that ANA prevalence tripled for youth aged 12 to 19 years over a 25-year time period. Studies estimate that 30% of autoimmune diseases are caused by genetic factors, with the other 70% caused by environmental factors like diet, lifestyle, infections, pollutants, and toxic chemicals. However, experts note that genetics and greater awareness cannot account for the rise in autoimmune diseases. An increase in rates for young people “could not be explained by trends in things like body size, smoking history, or alcohol use.” In fact, young people are generally drinking less and eating better than their predecessors. Personally, especially after my celiac diagnosis, I’ve tried hard to minimize potential triggers within my control, which made a second diagnosis that much more aggravating.
Plastics, Toxic Chemicals, & Autoimmune Disease
So let’s look at what’s left: pollutants and toxic chemicals. Plastic pollution has doubled since 2000, with industry planning to triple production by 2060. This plastic never goes away, it only breaks up into smaller and smaller pieces and finds its way into the air we breathe, water we drink, and food we eat. As with any of the factors mentioned, direct cause cannot be established, and there’s a lot we don’t know. But we know enough.
We know that the chemicals added to plastic are often highly toxic and established neurotoxins, carcinogens, and endocrine disruptors. And we know at a minimum, microplastics are making their way through our intestinal systems.
We also know that microplastics are invaders in our bodies. Research has shown that they are identified as such invaders by our immune systems, which attack in response. Accumulation of these microplastic invaders can cause chronic inflammation, disrupt the microbiome, and even lead to molecular mimicry as they confuse the immune system. These are not benign responses.
Chronic inflammation is a major factor in autoimmune disease. It’s also the reason why those with inflammatory bowel disease, like me, are at increased risk of developing cancers like colorectal and small bowel cancer. Some research has even suggested that microplastics specifically “may contribute to the transition from chronic inflammation to cancer.” And cancer, especially those in the gastrointestinal system, has also increased in prevalence in younger populations beyond genetic explanation. One paper explicitly matched the timeline of cancer increase in young adults to the rise of microplastics in our environment. PFAS (Per and Polyfluoroalkyl substances, or “forever chemicals”), found in many plastic products, have also been associated with chronic inflammation and autoimmune disease.
Much like an autoimmune disease, we’re attacking ourselves with plastic. Dissimilarly, it’s not a mistake. The fossil fuel and petrochemical industries are increasing the plastic pollution that threatens the livelihoods of us all. Of course, it’s important to try to limit your exposure to microplastics and sources of inflammation as much as possible. I’m sure trying to. But to return to the beginning, even though impacts may affect each of us differently, and it can be tempting to just focus on oneself when health problems hit, we can’t get out of this alone. This crisis necessitates fierce collective action to hold industry responsible and demand cuts in the fossil fuel and toxic chemical use and plastic production, destroying our health. Every human must be ensured safe water, nutritious food, clean air, and quality healthcare, for all of us to thrive.
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Learn more about the intersections of the plastic pollution crisis, solutions that exist, and take action for a toxic-free world.
I am so sorry for your chronic disease woes! I, too, had blood markers of an autoimmune disease several years ago and was a heavy tea drinker. I then read the paper about the billions of micro/nano-plastic released from each brewed tea bag and eliminated bagged tea for loose leaf tea. (https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/acs.est.9b02540) Six months later my blood markers for the autoimmune disease (rheumatoid arthritis) were gone.