Have Micro and Nanoplastics Become Part of Our Diet?

Revisited

No.134 Issue 1/2019

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It is a well-known fact that microplastics swimming in our oceans are a huge problem but have they already found their way into our stomachs?

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Rachel Kwek Terence Koh Ocean plastic pollution is a major and growing global problem. Scientists estimate that the Earth’s oceans may already contain more than 150 million metric tonnes of plastic, with eight million metric tonnes more entering the oceans each year. Plastics do not degrade easily. In the marine environment, plastics are usually broken down into smaller pieces by the sun, waves, wind and microbial action. These micro- and nanoplastic particles in the water may be ingested by filter-feeding marine organisms such as barnacles, tube worms and sea squirts. In a study funded under the Marine Science Research and Development Programme of the National Research Foundation Singapore (first published online in the journal ACS Sustainable Chemistry & Engineering in March 2018), a team of scientists from the National University of Singapore (NUS) found that plastic nanoparticles – tiny pieces of plastic less than one micrometre in size – are easily ingested by marine organisms and accumulate in the organs over time, potentially contaminating food chains, threatening food safety and posing health risks.