You may be getting more than you bargained for in your supermarket fish and shellfish. A new study has found that plastic particles – ranging from styrofoam containers and microfibers to plastic bags and pieces of car tire – have been found in marine animals large and small, CBC News reports.
“It has infiltrated every level of the food chain in marine environments and likely fresh water, and so now we’re seeing it come back to us on our dinner plates,” Chelsea Rochman, University of Toronto ecologist and co-editor of the report, told CBC News.
The study was included in a report for the UN agency responsible for improving maritime safety and preventing pollution, the International Maritime Organization. The researchers said they haven’t yet established what impact consuming the microplastics will have on human health.
“What we really need to do is a risk assessment … nobody has done that for microplastics,” Rochman told CBC News, emphasizing that before consumers shun seafood, more research is needed.
The plastic particles can’t simply be removed from marine animals by gutting them. These materials enter their tissues as well, Peter Wells, senior research fellow with the International Ocean Institute at Dalhousie University told CBC News.
Adding that it’s not just the plastic that’s a concern — it’s also the organic contaminants that come with it: “PCBs, pesticides, flame retardants and hormone-disrupting compounds of many kinds.”