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Better Data, Better Outcomes: Unified Macroplastic Ingestion Reporting Methods to Inform Risk Assessment
Summary
Scientists have documented plastic ingestion in over 1,500 animal species, but we still don't fully understand how harmful it actually is to their health and survival. This paper proposes a standardized way for researchers to record not just that animals eat plastic, but the actual injuries and deaths it causes, so we can set science-based safety limits for plastic pollution. While this study focuses on wildlife rather than humans, better data on how plastic damages living creatures could eventually help us understand risks to human health too, especially since we're all exposed to plastic in our environment and food chain.
Addressing the impacts of plastic pollution, particularly plastic ingestion, on wildlife and ecosystems has become a priority for decision-makers developing management strategies. As nations design national action plans, the need for science-based targets to guide management objectives is increasingly urgent. Despite decades of evidence showing plastic ingestion in more than 1,500 species, our understanding of how ingestion affects organisms, populations, and ecosystems remains limited. Ecological risk assessments, which estimate the likelihood that a stressor will cause adverse effects at various biological levels, offer a pathway for identifying environmental thresholds. However, for macroplastic ingestion─an exposure pathway that cannot be ethically or feasibly studied in the laboratory─harmonized, large-scale environmental datasets are essential. Existing frameworks for reporting plastic ingestion are well suited for characterizing exposure in marine species, yet researchers often do not document observed harm in ways that support risk assessments. Here, we present a framework for collecting and reporting data on plastic ingestion in wildlife that better captures effects relevant to macroplastic risk assessment. Our framework builds on established ingestion protocols and introduces new approaches for measuring and reporting acute wildlife mortality and injuries attributable to plastic ingestion. Implementing this framework will continue to support long-term monitoring efforts, while improving our understanding of lethal and sublethal ingestion thresholds.