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# Plastics Execs Knew for Years that Microplastics Were Infiltrating the Human Body
- URL: https://bevnews.net/plastics-execs-knew-for-years-that-microplastics-were-infiltrating-the-human-body/
- Published: 2026-10-27T01:32:01.000Z
- Updated: 2026-10-27T01:32:01.000Z
- Author: Joel Whitaker
- Tags: Packaging

If you use plastic for any of your containers, stop now. 

Scientists and executives at major chemical companies have known that tiny plastic PVC particles – what we now call "microplastics" – migrate beyond the gut in animals and humans, depositing in important organs as early as 1974.

That's when Gerhard Volkheimer, a German gastroenterologist, presented a paper showing for the first time that tiny bits of swallowed plastic PVC could slip through the intestinal lining of animals and travel through the blood and lymph to the brain, liver and other internal body parts.

Tracey Woodruff, professor of epidemiology and population health at Stanford University, who reviewed the documents, likened it to other industries that knew about pollutants — greenhouse gases, asbestos and tobacco — but did not take action to make them safer.

According to the Times, Matthew Campen, a professor of pharmaceutical research at the University of New Mexico, and a leading researcher in microplastics and human health, says the same process applies to any small, impermeable particle including polyethylene, polypropylene and PET — the plastics that dominate today’s market and the microplastics found in human bodies.

Both wine and spirits producers package at least some of their production in plastic. Plastic containers have many benefits – they can be made on s9ite, tend to be less expensive to ship, etc., all of which reduces the cost to consumers.

The presence of these particles in human bodies has been linked to [heart disease](https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMoa2309822?referrer=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.google.com%2F&ref=bevnews.net), [inflammation](https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC11494930/?ref=bevnews.net) and [cancer.](https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC12505851/?ref=bevnews.net)

**Craig Davis**, senior director of plastics chemistry at the **American Chemistry Council,** said, “Scientific debate over what the evidence shows is not silence. It is how sound science and effective policy advance. Our industry is committed to advancing microplastics science by supporting independent research and policies that would do so.”

ACC has supported a [congressional bill](https://www.congress.gov/bill/119th-congress/house-bill/4903?ref=bevnews.net) that would “improve scientific methods and enable ‘gold standard’ science” on microplastics and pointed to its funding of the Microplastics Advanced Research and Innovation Initiative, founded in 2022 by the International Council of Chemical Assns, Davis said.

The Plastics Industry Associations did not respond to request for comment. 

The beverage alcohol industry is already under attack for selling an allegedly unsafe product. There is no reason to provide your enemies with additional information by packaging your product in an allegedly unsafe product when you have glass and metal containers available. 

**Free Advice:** If we owned a distillery, winery or brewery, we'd switch as quickly as possibel to a glass or metal containers for our product. And we'd run large ads highlight the reason why – and saying we're mking the switch because we care about out customers.