US Government launches programme to combat microplastics in the human body

The United States Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), a federal government department focused on protecting the health of Americans and providing essential human services, has launched a 144 million US dollar programme to investigate how microplastics build up within the human body and look for ways to protect people against their potential health impact.

The Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health (ARPA-H), an agency within HHS, dubbed the initiative the Systematic Targeting Of MicroPlastics, or STOMP, and said the nationwide programme would create a framework for measuring, researching, and affordably removing microplastics and nanoplastics (MNPs) in the human body.

“HHS is taking decisive action to confront microplastics as a growing threat to human health,” said HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr in a statement. “Americans deserve clear answers about how microplastics in their bodies affect their health. Through ARPA-H’s STOMP programme, we will measure microplastic exposure, identify sources of risk, and develop targeted solutions to reduce it.”

Microplastics, which are often invisible to the naked eye, come from a wide range of everyday products and industrial processes, including personal care products and synthetic textiles, and have been detected in lungs, arterial plaques, and brains, through food, air and water. Animal case studies have also shown that microplastics cause disease, while human studies have shown a high correlation.

ARPA-H added: “Yet to date, we are still remarkably in the dark. We don’t have a precise way to measure microplastics in our organs, nor do we understand which ones are affecting us in what ways, because each plastic works differently.

“This is important: We can’t clear what we can’t measure, and we can’t develop interventions that are precise, safe, and effective for impacts we don’t understand.”

The STOMP programme, led by Drs Ileana Hancu and Shannon Greene, has been tasked with creating tools that will be affordable and accessible to reach the masses and help lower the downstream costs of treating and preventing microplastic-related disease.

Alicia Jackson, director of ARPA-H, said: “Microplastics are in every organ we look at, in ourselves and in our children. But we don’t know which ones are harmful or how to remove them.

“Nobody wants unknown particles accumulating in their body. The field is working in the dark. STOMP is turning on the lights.”

The programme’s three technical focus areas will be split into two phases: first, measurement and mechanism, and second, removal. During phase one, STOMP will design experiments to understand microplastics within the human body, including a clinical test that will quantify individual microplastic burden, to make monitoring and intervention possible at scale.