RFK Jr. Announces Investigation Into Removing Microplastics From the Human Body

‘We cannot treat what we cannot measure. We cannot regulate what we don’t understand,’ the health secretary said.

Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. in Washington on Jan. 29, 2026. Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty Images

The federal government will spend $144 million to investigate microplastics and figure out how to remove them from human bodies, Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and other officials announced on April 2.

The program—Systematic Targeting Of MicroPlastics (STOMP)—is tasked with measuring, researching, and removing microplastics and nanoplastics from humans.