• A British daily article reveals that researchers have found, for the first time, microplastics in the lungs of living patients.

    Internet users have made the link with the polypropylene present in the composition of the masks used against Covid-19.

  • The presence in the lungs of these microplastics is due to their omnipresence in our environment, in the water and in the air that we breathe.

  • According to Professor Jean-François Gérard and ANSES, there is no need to worry about masks if they are used as recommended.

“Masks help implant microplastics deep in the lungs…” For several days, this alert has been shared hundreds of times on social networks.

Worried, one of our readers sent us this rumor via our WhatsApp message.

A few clicks on Twitter or on Telegram are enough to discover the messages published by Internet users: polypropylene particles, present in the composition of general public surgical masks whose wearing has been imposed and generalized since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic, have been found in the lungs and blood of patients by researchers.

Most of these messages are accompanied by a screenshot from the very serious British newspaper

The Guardian

titled

Microplastics found in the deep lungs of living people for the first time

.

Among these microplastics, polypropylene is even highlighted at the beginning of the article.

It is also highlighted in another image that accompanies the premiere, a screenshot of a sales site (probably Amazon), which offers surgical masks made of this material.

Some go further and say that wearing a mask is equivalent to “breathing in asbestos with full lungs”.

FAKE OFF

After having peeled the composition of the masks of a dozen different brands, there is no doubt that polypropylene is the main element of these protections.

Data that the National Health Security Agency (ANSES) confirms on its site.

It is a thermoplastic polymer used in all types of industries, from car dashboards to household appliances and some food packaging.

Its manufacture makes it possible to obtain a solid substance which retains a certain flexibility, a quality which makes it the most widely used polymer in the world.

Polypropylene is indeed one of the microplastics cited by

The Guardian

.

The article, published April 6, 2022, makes no mention of surgical masks.

While microplastic particles were indeed found for the first time in the deep lungs of living patients, the studies cited reveal that this presence is due to pollution in general, not masks in particular.

Omnipresent particles in the environment

Jean-François Gérard, deputy director at the CNRS Institute of Chemistry and professor at the National Institute of Applied Sciences (INSA), explains this phenomenon: “We absorb very large quantities of particles every day.

Mineral dust, such as sand, carbon particles, plants.

But others, resulting from human activity, are also part of it.

"Car tires when they wear out, the textile fibers of a garment that we wash, the wear of a surface that we rub... All of them produce microparticles of plastic that end up in the water or in the air.

So, inevitably, we find them in our bodies and they can cause cancer, breathing difficulties, and even alter some of our genes.

Surgical masks are therefore composed, as we have said, of polypropylene, in the form of very fine, non-woven threads, the thickness of a hair.

Added together, they form a flexible sieve, which lets air through but traps droplets and other particles.

From there to find them at the bottom of our lungs?

More benefits than risks of wearing a mask

Jean-François Gérard wants to be reassuring: “Studies are still lacking on the subject.

But the first, published in 2021, show that masks protect more from microplastics present in the atmosphere than they pose a risk to their wearer.

“Same story on the side of ANSES which, in the light of investigations carried out by the DGCCRF, published its opinion in December 2021 and does not note “no exceeding of the health thresholds in chemical contaminants”.

These reassuring data are only valid if these single-use masks are used correctly.

Washed, disinfected or after spending all day rubbing inside a pocket, polypropylene fibers can deteriorate.

The sieve then reveals spaces for the external microparticles.

At this time, some fibers could be ingested or inhaled.

But still nothing to worry Jean-François Gérard.

The polypropylene used is "inert", that is to say that it does not present any particular toxicity: "There is confusion with asbestos, the shape of the particles of which, very acute, has an inflammatory power on lungs.

Polypropylene does not cause these effects.

»

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  • Health

  • fake-off

  • Environment

  • Covid-19

  • Pollution

  • Lung cancer