We Eat Plastic in Every Seafood, Claims Study!

If you love seafood and are fond of eating crabs, prawns, oysters, and squids keep in mind that you are also eating plastics along with them. Research claims that popular choices of food from Australia have traces of plastics in every seafood.  We made plastics for our usage and now they are taking over our air, water, and food.  

The study by the University of Exeter and the University of Queensland proceeded with a new type of method that identifies and measures five different types of plastic. The researchers found plastic levels of,

-0.04 mg per gram of tissue in squid,

-0.07 mg per gram in prawns,

-0.1 mg per gram in oysters,

-0.3 mg per gram in crabs and

-2.9 mg per gram in sardines

QUEX Institute Ph.D. study’s lead author Francisca Ribeiro, says that ‘”Considering an average serving, a seafood eater could be exposed to approximately 0.7mg of plastic when ingesting an average serving of oysters or squid, and up to 30mg of plastic when eating sardines, respectively,” 

This research was done by a few scientists who bought raw seafood- five wild blue crabs, ten oysters, ten farmed tiger prawns, ten wild squid, and ten wild sardines. Later they analyzed these traces of plastics that we commonly use as packaging material, and as synthetic textiles. The types of plastics in every seafood includes,

-Polystyrene,

-Polyethylene,

-Polyvinyl chloride,

-Polypropylene and

-Poly(methyl methacrylate).

These microplastics are very small in size and pollute much of the planet, including the sea where they are eaten by the sea animals. The researchers said that the risk of microplastic ingestion in humans does not stop at seafood but can also occur through beer, sea salt, and bottled water. The researchers also do not completely understand the risks of ingesting plastic, but this new method will make it easier for them to find out.