On November 21, 2025, the European TV channel ARTE released the new documentary Homo Plasticus, featuring AURORA researcher Prof. Nelly Saenen from Hasselt University. The film brings viewers on a scientific journey across Europe to meet some of the many scientists working to understand the widespread exposure humans have to plastics and how these materials might be impacting our health.
In her segment of the film, Nelly explains the important research AURORA is doing with birth cohorts to check for potential health impacts from micro- and nanoplastics (MNPs) during childhood. The cohorts studied within AURORA follow hundreds of children in Belgium and Spain from birth to adolescence by regularly collecting data on their personal health. This includes biomonitoring data such as samples of urine and blood as well as data from their mothers before birth and even the placenta that protected each child in the womb during pregnancy.
Prof. Nelly Saenen discusses ongoing research into MNPs and health using birth cohorts within the new ARTE documentary.
While some first scientific results across the field point towards how micro- and nanoplastics may be impacting our health, more research is still needed including to expand real-world human biomonitoring data such as being done in Nelly’s laboratory.
The newly published Research Roadmap from the CUSP cluster maps the current state of research in the field and identifies what is still needed in the short, intermediate, and long term. AURORA is continuing its work across seven work packages with results set to be published in 2026.
Despite the need for further research, an important value of the European Union is the precautionary principle, which states that lack of scientific certainty should not stand in the way of preventing potential harm to human health. Current evidence shows that plastic inflicts harm on human health across all life stages. Therefore, it is important to reduce unnecessary personal exposure to plastics as much as possible as the documentary also shows.
The AURORA project consortium wishes to thank director Elodie Bonnes for her interest in our research and for featuring us within this insightful new film.
References
ARTE (November 21, 2025). “Homo Plasticus – Plastic Inside Us.”
CUSP (October 30, 2025). “New roadmap outlines future research needs on micro- and nanoplastics and health.”
CUSP (October 30, 2025). “CUSP Research Roadmap 2026-2032.”
