The amount of microplastics floating in our oceans is increasingly grotesque; there are more and more, and they make their way into the home of many creatures on our planet. Now, various research groups around the world are trying to find out what health risks microplastics found in food and water pose to humans and other animals, if any.
One of these works, led by the University of Bayreuth, has discovered that several species of fish, shrimp and other shellfish such as mussels, are plagued by microplastics. Specifically, microplastics are present in at least four of the best-selling mussel species in seafood markets around the world . Which suggests that anyone who eats mussels is also ingesting microplastic particles.
The scientists found a total of nine different types of microplastics in the four mussel species sampled: the European blue mussel, the Pacific venus clam, the wavy venus, and the greenshell mussel. On average, they found 0.13 and 2.45 microplastic particles in 1 gram of mussel meat in the four species analyzed. Furthermore, the size of the microplastic particles they discovered ranged from 0.003 to 5 millimeters.
“Our new study represents a significant advance in terms of methodology. We have combined the latest technologies and procedures in microplastic contamination sample preparation, measurement and analysis in such a way that comparable results can be obtained on this basis in the future.” concluded Christian Laforsch, study leader.
Reference: Analysis of microplastics of a broad size range in commercially important mussels by combining FTIR and Raman spectroscopy approaches. Enviromental Pollution 2020 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envpol.2020.116147
