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How microplastics interact with food chain: a short overview of fate and impacts
Summary
This review examines how microplastics move through the food chain, from water and soil into plants and animals, and ultimately into human food. Microplastics become more dangerous when they absorb toxic chemicals from the environment, and they accumulate in organisms because they take longer to pass through the body than to be consumed. The review highlights that microplastic bioaccumulation through the food web is a direct pathway for human exposure.
Microplastics as one of the ubiquitous contaminants have recently attracted attentions. Microplastics have the potential to impact the social-ecological environment. Accordingly, negating adverse effects on the environment necessitates scrutinizing physical and chemical characteristics of microplastics, emission sources, effects on the ecological environment, contaminated food chains especially human food web, and the impacts on human health. Microplastics are defined as very small plastic particles with a size smaller than 5 mm, which come in heterogeneous colors depending on their emission source and are composed of thermoplastics and thermosets. These particles based on their emission source are classified into primary and secondary microplastics. These particles diminish the quality of terrestrial, aquatic and air environments, which directly impact the habitats and trigger disruptions in plants and wild life. The adverse effects of these particles are multiplied when adsorbing to toxic chemicals. Moreover, these particles have the potential to be transmitted in organisms and human food chain. Due to the fact that the retention time in the body of organisms is longer than the time elapsed from ingestion to excretion, microplastic bioaccumulation occurs in the food webs.