The amount of credit card in our ocean — andthus in our seafood — is rising . The authors of a upcoming studysayEuropeans alone take about 11,000 microscopical pieces of credit card each every year . And unless we make some very big changes , that bit could reach 780,000 opus per person within a few decades .
Microplastics , also make out as microbeads , are popular additive to a wide range of personal care product , from face wash to toothpaste . We rinse them off and send them down the drain , where they head out into the water supply supplying . And there they ’ll stay on , absorbing chemical substance , until something or somebody comes along and eat them .
Studies havefoundthat fish that eat microbeads are smaller than others . Theyreject real foodin favour of more charge card . Their ballock are less likely to hatch , and hatchling are less likely to escape predatory animal .
Researchers at the University of Ghent in Belgium have beenstudyingthe effects of microplastics on mollusc like mussel , oyster , and simoleons , all of which are filter feeders . The average mussel sucks in and sprinkle out about 20 liters of water per day . Most of the plastic particles in that piss will be filtered and sent back out into the sea . Most , but not all ; lead researcher Colin Janssen says the mussel they examine had an norm of one flyspeck plastic shard apiece .
Janssen and his colleagues say the same process occurs in humans who consume shellfish . About 99 percent of the microplastic will pass through your system . That still leaves 1 percent to stay in the torso , and we do n’t yet bang what that means for our wellness .
“ We do involve to know the fate of the charge plate , ” JanssentoldSky News . “ Where do they go ? Are they encapsulated by tissue and forgotten about by the body , or are they cause inflammation or doing other things ? Are chemical leaching out of these charge plate and then causing toxicity ? We do n’t know . "
Experts estimate we ’re currently dumpingone garbage truck ’s worthof microplastic into the sea every minute . By 2050 , there could be more plastic than fish in the sea [ PDF ] . We ’ve started to take some steps — in 2016 , Congress vote toban microbeadsaltogether — but we ’ve still got a lot of work to do .
" We have to do something about it , ” Janssen said . “ We have to represent now . "
