People with microplastics or nanoplastics in their carotid artery tissues were twice as likely to have a heart attack, stroke or die from any cause over the next three years than people who had none, a new study found. Carotid arteries, which lie on each side of the neck and carry blood to the brain, can become clogged with fatty cholesterol plaques in a similar fashion as the arteries leading into the heart, a process known as atherosclerosis. “To date, our study is the first that associated the plastic contamination with human diseases,” said Raffaele Marfella, lead author of the study published Wednesday in the New England Journal of Medicine. To read the full story.