How to find out the levels of plastic in your bloodstream

Times

09-05-2025

In 1962 a Maryland biologist raised a loud alarm about the toxic effects of everyday chemicals in an eye-popping book. Rachel Carson — today regarded as the grandmother of modern ecology — linked the use of agricultural chemicals to the demise of insects, birds and trees. She also speculated on some of the cumulative effects of these 'poisons' on us as they enter our bodies. Ironically for such a noisy intervention, the book is titled Silent Spring.
Carson died from breast cancer shortly after publication, so she never got to experience the future she predicted. Silent Spring has never been out of print and it would be wonderful to say humanity heeded her warnings. But, spoiler alert: we just got more toxic.
This isn't wholly surprising. Take plastic — the material with which we are most often in contact. Today 16,000 chemicals are available for manufacturers to choose from, ranging from fillers to finishing chemicals that make plastic bendy. About a quarter of these chemicals have been shown to be hazardous to human health and the environment so far. These chemicals can be endocrine disruptors (aka hormonally active agents), and some are associated with cancers and reproductive system disorders.
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While we may have safety data on individual chemicals, toxicologists warn that we don't know the true impact of combinations, which is called the 'cocktail effect'. Accumulating in us, these toxic chemicals form what's known as the 'body burden'. But how heavy is this burden? It is estimated that we eat, drink or breathe between 78,000 and 211,000 microplastic particles every year, and a recent study suggested the average brain could harbour a teaspoon's worth. So we could all be scared — and freeze. But instead it might be more practical to get testing. That's because toxic chemicals and microplastics are so ubiquitous that we can't hide from them. Neither can we predict their precise impact on our health; while plastics are associated with a host of serious diseases and illnesses, more research is needed to make conclusive connections.
What is known, as toxicologists are fond of saying, is that 'the dose makes the poison'. So minimising your exposure to toxic chemicals makes sense — but to do this you're going to need some data. There's an emerging market in home-testing kits. For instance, thanks to developments in detecting and identifying the type and origin of tiny bits of plastic, plastictox.co.uk now offers the first microplastics blood-screening test kit (£144). A dried-blood microscopy test is provided and you return your samples using the prepaid label back to SV Biotech in the Netherlands. If microplastics are detected (unless you've been hatched from an egg, this is likely), your results will be emailed within 2-4 weeks, providing detailed information on concentration levels and sizes.
Next you'll want to get a grip on those associated chemicals that make plastics bendy and turn up in sunscreens, such as phthalates, parabens and oxybenzone (also known hormone disruptors). For $299, millionmarker.com will dispatch a urine collection cup with instructions and packaging for the return shipping. Its lab will test for 13 hormone-disrupting chemical metabolites. Helpfully, it won't leave you stewing with the results: the price includes personalised follow-up recommendations on toxic-free lifestyle changes.
The long-term effects of PFAS, or so-called forever chemicals, which make things stain-resistant and heatproof, are causing a lot of concern. Traditionally tests have only been carried out in clinics and tend to be reserved for those with known exposure, such asfirefighters (firefighting foams contain high concentrations of PFAS). But the first pin-prick home tests are appearing, notably a 16-chemical test from empowerdxlab.com costing $279 that indicates how many PFAS have entered your system over time.
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Dr Tamsin Lewis, the founder of Wellgevity and the longevity lead for Solice Health, a concierge medical service, would like to see more standardisation around biomarker tests. She makes the point that the jury is still out on 'healthy' limits for concentrations of environmental pollutants such as microplastics: 'Do we measure this in your urine, your hair, your spit, your blood? What is the definable norm range, and for whom? Should we have age standard or sex standard limits? We're not there right now.' However, she acknowledges that we are on the crest of something big. 'Awareness is key and we're moving into a really interesting industry where we're not far off knowing what environmental pollutants we need to arm ourselves against and what supplements we need to take to protect ourselves against unavoidable exposure,' she says.
But what should we do when tests come back showing high concentrations? 'I encourage people to have a lot of dark, leafy greens in their diet' — research suggests chlorophyll may improve the liver's ability to excrete harmful toxins — 'and once every six weeks, some people like to take a glutathione [injection]. This is an antioxidant produced in cells,' Lewis says.
But for a really easy way to offload the toxins, keep it simple: 'Sweating is one of the best ways to encourage toxin burden relief,' she adds cheerfully. 'It's a highly effective means of reducing heavy metals such as cadmium, mercury, tin and lead, and aluminium, which we're all exposed to.' In which case — keep your test results in perspective, but do sweat the small stuff.