Higher risk of Hypertension, Diabetes, and Stroke if near large body of water (microplastics)
MICROPLASTIC CONCENTRATION, SOCIAL, AND ENVIRONMENTAL FEATURES AND THEIR ASSOCIATION WITH CHRONIC DISEASE PREVALENCE: AN ANALYSIS ACROSS U.S. CENSUS TRACTS
Moderated Poster Contrbutions. March 30,2025.
Sal Rahul Ponnana. Tejas Rajagopabn, Tong Zhang, Zhuo Chan, Sartosh Kumar SlrasapaHl, SaM Deo, Case Western Reserve School of Medicine, Cleveland, OH, USA, University Hospitals, Harrington Heart and Vascular Institute, Cleveland, OH, USA
Background: Microplastic pollution is an emerging public health issue, with limited research linking it to chronic non-communicable diseases (NCDs) . This study investigates the association between microplastic concentration in coastal regions and the prevalence of high blood pressure (High BP), diabetes, stroke, and cancer in U.S. coastal census tract.
Method« Environmental microplastic data from the National Centers for Environmental Information (NCEI) were spatially linked to U.S. census tracts located within 200 meters of the shoreline from large bodies of water . NCD prevalence was sourced from CDC PLACES and integrated with 154 socioeoonomic/environmental factors like
median household income,
Employment rate,
Social Vulnerability Index (SVI),
Particulate Matter (PM2.5) from public datasets.
Correlation analyses and ANOVA were used to test associations between microplastic concentrations and disease prevalence. A machine learning model XGBoost (extreme Gradient Boosing) was developed to predict NCD, with SHAP (SHapley Additive explanations) analysis used for interpretation.
Results: We identified 555 coastal census tracts with available microplastic concentration. Positive correlations were found between microplastic concentrations and
High BP (r = 0.24),
diabetes (r = 0.3), and
stroke (r = 0.26),
while cancer showed a negative association (r = -0.16).
ANOVA results indicated significant associations with
High BP (F = 7.351, p< 0.001),
dabetes (F = 12.07, p< 0.001),
stroke (F = 8.798, p < 0.001), and
cancer (F = 3.986, p < 0.001).
- ANOVA explained https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/F-test
The XGBoost model identified microplastic concentration as a significant predictor of stroke prevalence, suggesting higher concentrations increase stroke risk.
Conduslon: This study offers initial evidence linking microplastic exposure with NCDs such as BP, diabetes, and stroke. These findings highlight the need for additional research on the cardiovascular effects of microplastics to inform public health policies and strategies for mitigating exposure.
Low correclation of 0.3 might associated with a Relative Risk of 1.3 or so
Reported on by Mercola May 2025
New Evidence Links Microplastics with Chronic Disease
Perplexity AI Report on the study - June 2025
Study was published July 2025
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Microplastics causing problems in humans, etc. (Vitamin D can help) - many studies