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Dietary exposure experiments on the migration of chemical pollutants from microplastics to bivalves
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Researchers conducted dietary exposure experiments to investigate how chemical pollutants migrate from microplastics to mussels. They found that mussels exposed to polyethylene microplastics accumulated significantly higher concentrations of PCBs and UV stabilizers in their tissues, particularly in reproductive organs. The study demonstrates that microplastics can serve as a pathway for transferring harmful chemical contaminants into seafood organisms.
Plastics can contain two types of organic contaminants; absorbed from ambient water, and already contained as additives. To investigate the bioaccumulation of these substances, we conducted two types of exposure experiments using mussels and polyethylene microplastics with absorbed PCBs and containing four types of additives (BDE209, DBDPE, UV327 and UV234). After dietary exposure for 15 days, significantly higher concentrations of total PCBs, UV327 and UV234 were detected in the gonad of exposed groups than in the control groups, respectively. However, no significant differences in BDE209 or DBDPE levels were observed between the control and exposure groups. Although a higher transfer ratio was shown for PCB congeners with octanol-water partition coefficients (logK) below 7, the ratio was lower for higher-hydrophobic PCBs with logK above 7. This suggests that higher hydrophobic compounds (not only highly chlorinated PCBs, but also BDE209 and DBDPE) tend not to desorb or leach from plastics.
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Researchers exposed mussels to PVC microplastics under different conditions, finding that short-term exposure caused physiological stress influenced by plastic additives and concentration, while long-term exposure allowed some adaptation. Microplastics were transferred along the food chain to predators but were not absorbed into tissues, suggesting physical passage rather than bioaccumulation.
Assessing microplastic as a vector for chemical entry into fish larvae using a novel tube-feeding approach
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Researchers tube-fed herring larvae polystyrene and polyethylene microplastics spiked with the pollutant PCB-153 to test whether plastics deliver chemical contaminants to fish tissue. The study found that PCB-153 transferred to larval tissue via the microplastics, demonstrating that ingested plastic particles can deliver toxic chemicals to marine fish.
Bioaccumulation and dietary bioaccessibility of microplastics composition and cocontaminants in Mediterranean mussels
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Researchers studied how Mediterranean mussels accumulate microplastics and co-contaminants like PFAS ("forever chemicals"), then tested how much transfers to humans during digestion. While mussels accumulated fewer PFAS when microplastics were present, the human digestion simulation showed that microplastics actually increased how much PFAS the body could absorb. This means eating microplastic-contaminated seafood could increase human exposure to harmful chemicals beyond what the contamination levels alone would suggest.
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When a large batch of papers lands in the Atlas, we read through it and send a short write-up of what stood out.