A New Study Says Microplastics Are Widespread in Seafood — Here's What You Need to Know

A new study in the journal Frontiers in Toxicology found that microplastics in the fish we consume are far more widespread than you may think.

In late December, researchers from Portland State University's Applied Coastal Ecology published the findings of their study looking into the proliferation of "anthropogenic particles," or APs, which includes microplastics and microfibers in fish and crustaceans humans often consume.

Specifically, the study examined the edible tissue of fish often fished along the Oregon coast or sold in the state's markets: black rockfish, lingcod, Chinook salmon, Pacific herring, Pacific lamprey, and pink shrimp — measuring the amount of microplastics in each. The study discovered APs in 180 of the 182 samples it collected, with only the lingcod and herring remaining unscathed.

"It's very concerning that microfibers appear to move from the gut into other tissues such as muscle," Susanne Brader, an ecotoxicologist from Oregon State University, shared in a press release about the study. "This has wide implications for other organisms, potentially including humans too."

Related: Eating Like a Salmon Is Better Than Eating Actual Salmon, Study Finds

As for the worst offenders, the researchers said that pink shrimp had the highest concentrations of APs, likely because the shrimp live near the surface, where lots of floating plastic exists, too.

"We found that the smaller organisms that we sampled seem to be ingesting more anthropogenic, non-nutritious particles," Elise Granek, professor of environmental science and management, added. "Shrimp and small fish, like herring, are eating smaller food items like zooplankton. Other studies have found high concentrations of plastics in the area in which zooplankton accumulate, and these anthropogenic particles may resemble zooplankton and thus be taken up by animals that feed on zooplankton."

It's important to note that researchers are "not advocating for people to stay away from seafood," as microplastics are already contaminating just about everything, including "bottled water, beer, honey, beef, chicken, veggie burgers and tofu," they wrote in the release. Thus, this study should be used as a baseline for further research to understand how these particles move from what we eat to us and potential policy regulations to lessen their impact in the future.

However, as Food & Wine previously reported, while the effect of microplastics on humans is an ongoing topic of research, several studies have shown that microplastics have the potential to affect many areas of human health, including negatively impacting our digestive and respiratory systems, the human endocrine and reproductive systems, and the human immune system. Some studies have even shown it can cause infertility and miscarriage.

“This project established critical baseline data for West Coast fisheries stakeholders and highlighted how much we still do not know about these pervasive microplastic pollutants,” Summer Traylor, who worked on the study and is now a NOAA Corps Officer, added. “If we are disposing of and utilizing products that release microplastics, those microplastics make their way into the environment and are taken up by things we eat. What we put out into the environment ends up back on our plates.”

Read the original article on Food & Wine