Newswise — Rutgers received a $3.2 million dollar grant from the National Institutes of Health to study the impact of micronanoplastics on the digestive system.

The byproduct of environmental and industrial processes, micro- and nano-scale plastic particles and fibers increasingly contaminate the environment. These plastics — now found in our food, air and water — are a potential health hazard.

“This is a concern of epic proportions, especially because we know so little about micronanoplastics’ impact on our health,” said Philip Demokritou, the Henry Rutgers Chair and Professor of Nanoscience and Environmental Bioengineering at Rutgers Health and principal investigator of the project.

With little existing research on micronanoplastics, there is a need for data based on environmentally relevant micronanoplastics and their potential health implications. This five-year NIH-funded project aims to assess the micronanoplastics impact within the human digestive system and other organs, especially for susceptible populations with inflammatory bowel diseases.

Researchers will look at the potential health hazards of ingested micronanoplastics on the intestine and other organs and tissues as well the cellular process behind this. The research also will examine the roles that plastic type and chemistry (e.g., polyethylene, polystyrene, polyethylene terephthalate), size and other properties play in their uptake and toxicity. They also will look at the impact of micronanoplastics on intestinal inflammation.

“We hope that the results of our work will help risk assessors and policy makers assess the risks of micronanoplastics ingestion, provide the basis and rationale for regulatory action and will open new areas of research in toxicology and epidemiology for this emerging and novel pollutant,” said Demokritou, who is the director of the division of environmental health biosciences at the Environmental Occupational Health Sciences Institute (EOHSI) and a professor in the department of mechanical and aerospace engineering at Rutgers School of Engineering and the Department of Environmental and Occupational Health and Justice at the Rutgers School of Public Health and leader of the project.

The grant will support ongoing research activities in micronanoplastics at the EOHSI Nanoscience and Advanced Materials Center, which studies how environmental and engineered nanoparticles interact with biological and environmental systems. It also will expand collaborations across Rutgers and the Rutgers Department of Genetics with Michael Verzi, the Duncan and Nancy MacMillan Chair in Cancer Genomics, a co-principal investigator of the study, and an expert on metabolic diseases in the gastrointestinal tract.