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Microplastic on our plate, also in our shops…
Summary
Belgian researchers investigated whether microplastics are actually present in wild and farmed bivalves under field conditions, rather than only at the unrealistically high concentrations used in lab studies. They found microplastics in both wild and cultured mussels and oysters, providing the first direct evidence that these seafood species accumulate microplastics at environmentally relevant levels.
M icroplastics are present th ro u g h o u t the marine environm ent, and ingestion o f these small (<1 mm) plastic particles has been dem onstrated repeatedly in a laboratory setting fo r a wide array o f marine (invertebrate) organism s.However, as the exposure concentrations o f m icroplastics in these types o f experim ents are much higher (over a thousand tim es higher) than any reported field concentration, it is d iffic u lt to assess the relevance o f these results fo r natural environm ents.Therefore, we assessed the presence o f m icroplastics in tw o bivalve species living in natural conditions: both field collected and cultured individuals o f M ytilus edulis, and farm ed Crassostrea gigas were investigated.