{"id":7100,"date":"2025-08-12T19:14:53","date_gmt":"2025-08-13T00:14:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pirg.org\/missouri\/?post_type=update&#038;p=7100"},"modified":"2025-08-12T18:16:37","modified_gmt":"2025-08-12T23:16:37","slug":"plastic-found-in-the-air-that-we-breathe","status":"publish","type":"update","link":"https:\/\/pirg.org\/missouri\/updates\/plastic-found-in-the-air-that-we-breathe\/","title":{"rendered":"Plastic found in the air that we breathe"},"featured_media":54404,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-noindex":false,"_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-nofollow":false,"_yoast_wpseo_opengraph-title":"","_yoast_wpseo_opengraph-description":"","_yoast_wpseo_twitter-title":"","_yoast_wpseo_twitter-description":""},"campaign_tax":[170],"display_option":[],"issue_tax":[],"region_tax":[],"state":[28,2],"topic_tax":[145],"class_list":["post-7100","update","type-update","status-publish","hentry"],"acf":{"details":{"helper_taxonomies":{"topics":[145],"collection":false,"press_type":false,"person_type":false,"resource_type":false,"event_type":false,"campaigns":170,"department":false,"level":false,"states":[2,28],"act_option":false,"display_option":false,"primary":{"topic":145}},"featured_image":54404,"caption_override":"","excerpt":"A new study found that people are inhaling microplastic particles. A lot of them.","hide_hero_image":false},"helper_people_group":{"title":"Authors","entities":null},"page_layout":[{"acf_fc_layout":"layout_wysiwyg","_acfe_flexible_toggle":"","component_wysiwyg":{"content":"<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\"All I need is the air that I breathe,\" isn't just a phrase from a <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=EozcNss6A8U&amp;list=RDEozcNss6A8U&amp;start_radio=1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">great song by the Hollies<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, it's also a totally reasonable thing to yell in response to a <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.upi.com\/Health_News\/2025\/07\/31\/france-microplastics-inhaled-study\/9541753989264\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">new study<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> that found that the average American is inhaling an estimated 68,000 tiny microplastic particles a day.<\/span>\r\n\r\n<strong>That\u2019s 100 times more than previously thought.\u00a0<\/strong>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">These microscopic plastic bits are so small that you can\u2019t see, feel or taste them. They can embed deep in our lungs and can even pass into our bloodstream. Even scarier is that we still don\u2019t really know what the full health impacts of these microplastics might be.<\/span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">These particles are <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/thehill.com\/policy\/equilibrium-sustainability\/5427305-inhaling-microplastics-lungs-study\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">found<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> in the air outside, but we can also breathe them in inside our homes, cars and workplaces. You can\u2019t feel them when you take a deep breath, so we could be breathing them in without ever realizing it.<\/span>\r\n\r\n<a href=\"https:\/\/pubs.acs.org\/doi\/10.1021\/envhealth.3c00052\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Previous studies<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> have suggested that the microplastics in our bodies are linked to health problems, including reproductive disorders, organ dysfunction, diabetes, cardiovascular disease and cancer.\u00a0<\/span>\r\n\r\n<b>It's clear that we need to stop producing, using and throwing away so much plastic.\u00a0<\/b>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">At PIRG, we\u2019re working to phase out the worst kinds of single-use plastics and reduce how much plastic is produced in the first place to stop microplastics from proliferating in our environment and in our bodies.\u00a0<\/span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">And we need your help. Read <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/pirg.org\/articles\/how-to-protect-yourself-from-microplastics\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">our tips<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> for how you can reduce your exposure to microplastics, and add your name to <a href=\"https:\/\/pirg.org\/take-action\/tell-sysco-reduce-your-use-of-plastic-packaging\/\">our petition calling on Sysco<\/a>, the largest food distribution company in America, to reduce its use of plastic packaging.\u00a0<\/span>","":null}}],"featured_content":""},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v28.8 (Yoast SEO v28.8) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Plastic found in the air that we breathe<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"A new study found that people are inhaling microplastic particles. 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