Most fish for human consumption contain microplastics, according to new study.
It's possible to find microplastics in commercial fish food, she said, because the wild fish that end up in fishmeal consume some of the microplastics that litter the waters they live in.
Which foods contain microplastics? “They're in everything you eat or drink,” says Mason. But the largest dietary source of microplastics can be found in drinking water. One 2018 study by Mason and her team discovered plastic particles in 93% of bottled water samples.
Smaller fish—sardines, anchovies, farmed trout, fresh tilapia, arctic char—and bivalves such as scallops, clams, and oysters don't build up as many contaminants as do the large carnivores.
Ingesting microplastic can even kill plankton that are crucial sources of food to other marine life, including fish. This is because plankton cannot get a sufficient amount of food into their guts if they're already occupied by little shreds of plastic.
Baechler cited a recent review study that found that 60% of fish examined globally contained microplastics; it also found that carnivorous fish tend to contain more microplastics than omnivores. "This is particularly notable considering that many commercially important fish species are carnivorous," Baechler added.
Using less water with every load. Avoiding the delicate wash setting, which uses more water than the normal cycle. Washing your clothing less often. Buying fewer new clothes, as new clothing sheds more microfibers than clothes that have been previously washed and worn.
Wild-caught fish had more contaminants than farmed salmon, a result which was expected due to differences in diet. A variable but low number of microplastic particles were found in gills and in the gastrointestinal tract, but this was too low to conclude that there is a correlation with the levels of contaminants.
Highlights. Microplastics are detected in eggs and confirmed by multiple methods. Nile red staining can help to detect microplastics more quickly and accurately. The existence of microplastics in eggs also needs people's attention.
Small studies have found microplastics in the human gut and bloodstream. These tiny plastic pieces come from old tires, disposable bags, water bottles, clothing, and more. If consumed, they can cause digestive problems and infections since they absorb toxic substances.
Active predators — those at the top of the food chain, like members of the Sphyrnidae family, which includes hammerhead and bonnethead sharks — ingested the most plastic. Grazers and filter‐feeders consumed the least.
A total of 90% of the reported particles presented a size range of 1-50 µm. The number of MPs present in canned tuna suggests that the ingredients and inputs of the canning process greatly contribute to micro polymers.
As the oceans fill with plastic debris, hundreds of marine species eat astonishing amounts of it.
Depending on where your fish came from, it may contain environmental toxins. Salmon that live in contaminated water absorb toxins into their skin. This can make the skin unsafe to eat. In fact, a study in PLoS One found that a diet high in farmed salmon may raise the risk of obesity and type 2 diabetes.
Just like with your own body, salmon flesh should bounce back when you press it with a finger. If you press your fingers into the salmon and it springs right back up, it's safe to eat! Otherwise, if the flesh stays sunken and dimpled, the whole fish should be thrown away.
Contamination. Today, most of the salmon available for us to eat is farmed. Early studies reported high levels of PCBs and other contaminants in farmed salmon – higher than in some species of wild salmon, such as pink salmon.
Worst: King Mackerel
But king mackerel -- especially ones caught in the Pacific Ocean -- are high in mercury. Doctors say young children and women who are pregnant or nursing should avoid them completely.
“For most individuals it's fine to eat fish every day,” says Eric Rimm, professor of epidemiology and nutrition, in an August 30, 2015 article on Today.com, adding that “it's certainly better to eat fish every day than to eat beef every day.”
Carbon Blocks faucet filters: The most efficient ones, such as TAPP 2 remove 100% of all known microplastics. Reverse Osmosis filters: Can filter down to to 0.001 micron so will remove all known microplastics, but are more expensive and require maintenance.
In a similar vein, avoiding the delicate wash cycle — a more gentle setting used for knitwear and lingerie — can also reduce the number of microplastics produced. A 2019 study found the delicate setting, which uses twice as much water than typical cycles, releases on average 800,000 more microfibres per wash.
These chemicals can fake out our bodies' normal signals and lead to disease. Part of the problem is that microplastics are so tiny that they can get into our cells. British scientists recently showed damage to human cells in the laboratory at levels that we know we ingest with our food.