Discovery and quantification of plastic particle pollution in human blood

Discovery and quantification of plastic particle pollution in human blood H.A. Leslie Martin J. M. van Velzen Sicco H. Brandsma D. Vethaak Juan J. García‐Vallejo M.H. Lamoree

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Discovery and quantification of plastic particle pollution in human blood 2022 Environment International 10.1016/j.envint.2022.107199 leslie2022-discovery-and-quantification-of-pl leslie2022-discovery-and-quantification-of-pl.txt, the project's staged copy 228be284d9c3c009d1a66577cba52ace43c2a9c7 cc-by environmental-science

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0 spans located by searching the stored text for the quote's exact words, allowing any whitespace between them PLASTIC PARTICLES IN HUMAN BLOOD - a quantity nobody had measured, in a literature where the two available names for the particles do not have settled definitions Quotation withheld because this record is not cleared for redistribution. whether plastic particles cross into the human bloodstream at all, and whether a method sensitive enough to say so can be built Quotation withheld because this record is not cleared for redistribution. the first mass-concentration measurement of polymers in human blood - 1.6 ug/ml across 22 donors - and the double-shot Py-GC/MS method that produced it Quotation withheld because this record is not cleared for redistribution. existence Quotation withheld because this record is not cleared for redistribution. plastic particles absorbed across membranes and present in circulating blood, at a rate exceeding whatever removes them Quotation withheld because this record is not cleared for redistribution. observation observation Quotation withheld because this record is not cleared for redistribution. THE INFERENCE THE NUMBER LICENSES IS A RATE COMPARISON, NOT A QUANTITY: finding particles in blood `indicates that ... the rate of elimination via e.g. the biliary tract, kidney or transfer to and deposition in organs is slower than the rate of absorption into the blood`. A standing concentration is evidence about two rates and about neither one alone Quotation withheld because this record is not cleared for redistribution. and the paper is careful about what the blood compartment is: it `remains to be determined whether plastic particles are present in the plasma or are carried by specific cell types`. `In blood` is a location, and the mechanism of carriage is not in evidence Quotation withheld because this record is not cleared for redistribution. blood is the transport route: it irrigates the organs, so a particle that enters it can reach tissues, and its fate is renal or biliary elimination or deposition in liver, spleen or other organs Quotation withheld because this record is not cleared for redistribution. capillary diameter sets a physical ceiling on what can circulate, and anything at that size would itself affect microvascular flow Quotation withheld because this record is not cleared for redistribution. particles may be localised in immune cells, stuck to proteins, lipids, each other or the vessel wall - so a mass concentration can be real while duplicates disagree Quotation withheld because this record is not cleared for redistribution. THE CONSTRUCT'S BOUNDS ARE TWO PHYSICAL OBJECTS AND THE PAPER SAYS SO BEFORE REPORTING A NUMBER: `Our operationally defined method targeted particles that could be retained on a filter with pore size of 700 nm ... The inner diameter of the needle used for venipuncture (0.514 mm) can be considered the upper size limit`. Everything below a filter pore and above a needle bore is outside the finding by construction Quotation withheld because this record is not cleared for redistribution. AND THE INSTRUMENT DECIDES WHAT EXISTS: `Polypropylene was analysed but values were under the limits of quantification`. Absent from the blood and absent from the instrument are the same sentence here, and the study cannot separate them Quotation withheld because this record is not cleared for redistribution. the two available names for the object DO NOT HAVE SETTLED DEFINITIONS: `microplastic` has `no universally established definition` and is `often defined as ... up to 5 mm with no defined lower size limit`, while `nanoplastic` means <1 um in this literature and `<100 nm` IN THE NANOTECHNOLOGY FIELD. ONE WORD, TWO FIELDS, TWO THRESHOLDS Quotation withheld because this record is not cleared for redistribution. the sample is 22 donors and the paper calls it what it is - `a small set of donors` - in the same sentence as the headline concentration Quotation withheld because this record is not cleared for redistribution. and the result is explicitly NOT a risk statement: `no absorption models can be validated and no statements about risk or no risk can be made` without measured internal exposure data. The measurement is a precondition for the question, not an answer to it Quotation withheld because this record is not cleared for redistribution. the PM2.5/PM10 convention of reporting an operationally defined mass concentration per unit volume is adopted wholesale as the way to quantify plastic in blood Quotation withheld because this record is not cleared for redistribution. the size window is fixed and declared before any measurement - a 700 nm filter pore below, a 0.514 mm needle bore above eliminates: any reading of the number as a total; it is the mass of what falls inside two physical limits, and the paper states both · outcome: held Quotation withheld because this record is not cleared for redistribution. whether polypropylene is absent from blood or below the assay's threshold eliminates: nothing, and the sentence cannot be made to: 'Polypropylene was analysed but values were under the limits of quantification' · outcome: failed Quotation withheld because this record is not cleared for redistribution. whether the measurement supports a risk claim eliminates: the risk reading, explicitly and in both directions: 'no statements about risk or no risk can be made' without measured internal exposure data - which this study provides for the first time and which is still only the precondition · outcome: held Quotation withheld because this record is not cleared for redistribution. drawing blood through a closed all-glass vacutainer system with a steel needle and no plastic tubing or reservoir eliminates: plastic contamination introduced by the sampling equipment itself, which would manufacture the very finding being sought · outcome: held Quotation withheld because this record is not cleared for redistribution. identifying the rubber vacutainer seal by ATR-FTIR to establish which polymer it is eliminates: the possibility that the one unavoidable non-glass component contributes to the targeted polymers · outcome: held Quotation withheld because this record is not cleared for redistribution. running the entire sampling system as a field blank before any sample eliminates: background contamination attributable to the collection apparatus rather than the donor · outcome: held Quotation withheld because this record is not cleared for redistribution. duplicate extraction and measurement of each sample where volume allowed, with multiple procedural blanks per series eliminates: single-measurement artefacts and uncorrected background drift between series · outcome: held Quotation withheld because this record is not cleared for redistribution. plastic particles plastic particles Quotation withheld because this record is not cleared for redistribution. microplastic microplastic Quotation withheld because this record is not cleared for redistribution. nanoplastic nanoplastic Quotation withheld because this record is not cleared for redistribution. pore size of 700 nm pore size of 700 nm Quotation withheld because this record is not cleared for redistribution. limits of quantification limits of quantification Quotation withheld because this record is not cleared for redistribution. human health risk assessment human health risk assessment Quotation withheld because this record is not cleared for redistribution. protein corona protein corona Quotation withheld because this record is not cleared for redistribution. Py-GC/MS Py-GC/MS Quotation withheld because this record is not cleared for redistribution. procedural blank procedural blank Quotation withheld because this record is not cleared for redistribution. particulate matter particulate matter Quotation withheld because this record is not cleared for redistribution. field sampling blank field sampling blank Quotation withheld because this record is not cleared for redistribution. `plastic particles` - A TERM THE AUTHORS COIN FOR THEIR OWN USE, because the field's two names will not hold still: `To circumvent the ambiguity of the terms microplastic and nanoplastic particles in this article we will refer to plastic particles and where appropriate define the size or size range`. The remedy for an unstable term is to stop using it and carry the number instead Quotation withheld because this record is not cleared for redistribution. `microplastic` - `no universally established definition exists`, and the common one - up to 5 mm - has NO LOWER BOUND AT ALL. A term whose extension is open at one end Quotation withheld because this record is not cleared for redistribution. `nanoplastic` - <1 um in this literature, `<100 nm` IN THE NANOTECHNOLOGY FIELD. ONE NAME, TWO FIELDS, A TENFOLD DIFFERENCE IN THE THRESHOLD, and the paper reports both rather than choosing Quotation withheld because this record is not cleared for redistribution. `a plastic particle in blood`, AS OPERATIONALISED HERE - anything retained on a 700 nm filter and small enough to pass a 0.514 mm needle. THE CONSTRUCT IS BOUNDED BY A FILTER PORE AND A NEEDLE BORE, in the authors' own words, and the phrase they use is `operationally defined` Quotation withheld because this record is not cleared for redistribution. `under the limits of quantification` - what the paper reports for polypropylene, and the one phrase in the record that cannot be read as a fact about blood. It is a fact about the assay Quotation withheld because this record is not cleared for redistribution. extends → Leslie and Depledge's and Vethaak and Legler's position that a human health risk assessment for plastic particles is not currently possible for want of exposure data Quotation withheld because this record is not cleared for redistribution. plastic particles —operationalised-as→ pore size of 700 nm plastic particles pore size of 700 nm Quotation withheld because this record is not cleared for redistribution. THE CONSTRUCT IS BOUNDED BY TWO PHYSICAL OBJECTS, IN THE AUTHORS' OWN WORDS: an `operationally defined` method targeting particles retained on a 700 nm FILTER PORE, with a 0.514 mm NEEDLE BORE as the upper limit THE CONSTRUCT IS BOUNDED BY TWO PHYSICAL OBJECTS, IN THE AUTHORS' OWN WORDS: an `operationally defined` method targeting particles retained on a 700 nm FILTER PORE, with a 0.514 mm NEEDLE BORE as the upper limit Quotation withheld because this record is not cleared for redistribution. microplastic has no universally established definition and often no lower size limit; nanoplastic means under 1 micrometre here but under 100 nm in nanotechnology microplastic has no universally established definition and often no lower size limit; nanoplastic means under 1 micrometre here but under 100 nm in nanotechnology Quotation withheld because this record is not cleared for redistribution. and the authors' remedy is to ABANDON BOTH TERMS: `to circumvent the ambiguity ... we will refer to plastic particles and where appropriate define the size or size range` and the authors' remedy is to ABANDON BOTH TERMS: `to circumvent the ambiguity ... we will refer to plastic particles and where appropriate define the size or size range` Quotation withheld because this record is not cleared for redistribution. 1.6 ug/ml mean sum quantifiable concentration across a SMALL SET OF DONORS - the first mass concentration of polymers measured in human blood 1.6 ug/ml mean sum quantifiable concentration across a SMALL SET OF DONORS - the first mass concentration of polymers measured in human blood Quotation withheld because this record is not cleared for redistribution. polypropylene was analysed, but its values were under the limits of quantification polypropylene was analysed, but its values were under the limits of quantification Quotation withheld because this record is not cleared for redistribution. at least some plastic particles can be bioavailable, and their elimination is slower than their absorption into the blood at least some plastic particles can be bioavailable, and their elimination is slower than their absorption into the blood Quotation withheld because this record is not cleared for redistribution. and the result is explicitly not a risk statement in EITHER direction: `no statements about risk or no risk can be made` without measured internal exposure and the result is explicitly not a risk statement in EITHER direction: `no statements about risk or no risk can be made` without measured internal exposure Quotation withheld because this record is not cleared for redistribution. it remains to be determined whether the particles are in the plasma or carried by specific cell types it remains to be determined whether the particles are in the plasma or carried by specific cell types Quotation withheld because this record is not cleared for redistribution. most available data covers particles above 10 or 50 micrometres Quotation withheld because this record is not cleared for redistribution. earlier FTIR analysis of human faeces showed that micro-sized plastic particles can be excreted via the gut Quotation withheld because this record is not cleared for redistribution. no one method fits all, so a combination of methods is required Quotation withheld because this record is not cleared for redistribution. coined to circumvent the ambiguity of `microplastic` and `nanoplastic`, and always carried with an explicit size or size range plastic particles Quotation withheld because this record is not cleared for redistribution. no universally established definition; often given as plastic particles up to 5 mm WITH NO DEFINED LOWER SIZE LIMIT microplastic Quotation withheld because this record is not cleared for redistribution. nanometres - the filter pore that is the lower bound of the construct 700 Quotation withheld because this record is not cleared for redistribution. millimetres - the venipuncture needle's inner diameter, and the upper bound 0.514 Quotation withheld because this record is not cleared for redistribution. micrograms per millilitre, mean sum quantifiable concentration in 22 donors 1.6 value source note: THE DESCRIPTION DRAWS ON THE PAPER BEYOND THIS QUOTE: the 22 donors are stated in the abstract ('in human whole blood from 22 healthy volunteers'). Quotation withheld because this record is not cleared for redistribution. the proportion of body weight made up by blood Quotation withheld because this record is not cleared for redistribution. capillary diameter, which bounds the particle size that can circulate Quotation withheld because this record is not cleared for redistribution. the number of volunteers and the collection protocol Quotation withheld because this record is not cleared for redistribution. limits of quantification limits of quantification Quotation withheld because this record is not cleared for redistribution.

The full text of this article is not redistributable, so it is not included here. The evidence sentences are withheld with it; the tag layer and its grounding status remain. The article itself is at https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envint.2022.107199.