If your diet includes seafood it could mean you’re swallowing up to 11,000 pieces of plastic a year, scientists have warned – and it’s going to get worse.
Researchers found that the average portion of mussels contains around 90 plastic particles, while six oysters contain around 50 particles.
This means someone eating the equivalent of two portions of mussels a week would swallow up to 11,000 plastic fibres in a year.
A plan for zero tolerance of plastic pollution of the oceans may be agreed by nations at a UN environment summit.
Governments are being asked to move towards a legal treaty banning plastic waste from entering the sea.
At the moment ships are prohibited from dumping plastic overboard but there’s no international law against plastics flooding into the sea from the land.
Experts say ocean plastics are an obvious subject for a global treaty: plastics present a large-scale threat.
Plastic pollution doesn’t recognise international borders.
http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-42190678
Our love affair with plastic—from water bottles, shopping bags, and drinking straws, to consumer product packaging—is taking a toll on the world’s oceans, and damaging the health of people, marine birds, and animals. The filmmakers and scientists behind a new documentary exploring this problem recently joined Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health community members for a film screening and panel discussion. Experts offered solutions for policymakers, as well as steps ordinary citizens can take to reduce plastic pollution.
https://www.hsph.harvard.edu/news/features/plastic-pollution-harms-oceans-health/
