Title:
Human Milk, Microplastics and Children's Health: An Equation to Be Solved

Authors:
Luiz Antonio Del Ciampo, Ieda Regina Lopes Del Ciampo, Brazil

Abstract:

In the last 70 years, plastics have been increasingly produced and have contributed to the emergence of a major public health problem related to environmental pollution, since almost 80% of their degradation, called microplastics (MP), is deposited in the environment where it contaminates the atmosphere, water and food, with a great capacity to accumulate in the human body. The most common route of human contamination is the digestive tract and MP has already been detected in practically every part of the body, including human milk, which is the main food for children in their first two years of life. Therefore, considering the main physiological and metabolic characteristics of children and the importance of human milk for their nutrition, this article presents some aspects related to MP its mechanisms of action and effects on the body and current knowledge about the presence of this environmental pollutant in food and human milk.

DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.51505/ijmshr.2025.9504