Microplastics in Seafood and in Our Body
Ronald Murphy
Writing For the Sciences
April 12, 2022
Cover Letter
This is the second paper that I have written for this course, being that this is the second
paper I took a different approach than the first paper. In the first paper I made an outline and then
wrote the paragraph. For this paper however, I chose to write three paragraphs in one sitting,
normally I do not do this, but I wanted to give it a try. I found that writing the outline first with
the topic sentence and the analysis laid out is less tiring and gives more structure to the
paragraphs. The outline also gives me an idea of where I am going to start while writing my
paper. The research for this paper was one of the most time-consuming aspects. For starts, not all
studies will go with your claim and not all claims will go with the study. Finding the right study
was crucial for the writing of the paper, looking back I wish I had a day to sit with my group and
go over all the studies that we chose for the assignment. This is the first time that I had to
synthesize in college, and it was helpful that we had an entire lesson dedicated to the topic. For
the next research paper that I write I am going to make a few outlines to minimize the amount of
paragraph, trial and error, that needs to be made. Since this page had a 5-6 page requirement it
was difficult to fulfill the requirement and I added a paragraph at the end. I feel as though the
paragraph that I added at the end was not a filler and added useful context that I would have
otherwise left out if not for the page requirement.
Abstract
This paper took aim at the effect that microplastics in seafood have. In this paper I went
over what microplastics are and how they travel, how they affect the body, and their behavior in
the body. Using seafood as the main mode of transportation that microplastics use to accumulate
in the body. Seafood is important to include since many cultures use seafood in their diet. The
effects that microplastics have on people needs more research done however, with the ‘little’
research that has been done there are many implications to human health. When looking at
microplastics in the body we need to know how they behave and what systems they attack.
Finally, I looked at two different oceans to draw up comparisons to show that the microplastics
are found in oceans that are far apart.
Introduction
As common knowledge has it, plastic is used in everything from toothbrushes to the
bottles that we drink from. Plastic is inexpensive and versatile which makes it a great do-it-all
material. However, one of the costs that has been poorly calculated was the degradation of
plastic material and the effect that they can have on living creatures. When plastics degrade, they
become what is known as microplastics. These microplastics are very small, which makes it easy
for them to travel from their origin. Take the example of a bottle in a forest, once the bottle
begins to degrade and make microplastics it will make its way into the air and the water supply.
Once, it goes in the air the animals begin to have microplastics in them. This is never ending
cycle of microplastics making their way into organisms. The following I will be explaining
exactly what microplastics are and how they travel, how microplastics behave in the body, and
finally the health effects of microplastics.
What are Microplastics and how are they transmitted?
Over the past few decades plastic production has been on the rise and there are no signs
of it of slowing down. Plastics are a necessary component to the daily lives of people, from
farmers to people that work in offices. After plastics have reached the end of their usage it is
time to dispose of them, currently there are three main methods of disposal; reused to make other
plastic products, burned to in order to produce energy, or thrown into landfills for them to rot
away (Fournier et al., 2021).As time passes plastics degrade and decompose, during the
decomposition process the plastics become very small, less than 5 mm in size, which is what
microplastics are considered. These small sizes allow for the transmission of microplastics to be
effortless through the food that we eat to the air that we breath (VETHAAK & LEGLER, 2021).
Contamination through seafood is a reality and a study was conducted to measure the dangers of
microplastics in seafood. It resulted in most of the seafood in China containing microplastics
(Pan et al., 2022).
How microplastics behave in the body
The accumulation of microplastics in the body is how the body begins to feels the effects
of the microplastics. The biggest take away from this paper is the dangers of microplastics in
high concentrations, which is how they begin to affect the body’s health. In (Fournier et al.,
2021) it says, “Once in contact with epithelial linings in the lung or intestine, or after being
internalized, microplastics may cause physical, chemical, and microbiological toxicity, which
could also act cumulatively.” Since microplastics need cumulative activity in order to have an
effect in the body it is important to establish how quickly microplastics can accumulate,
“Following a 4-week exposure period, 20 µm and 5 µm PS MPs accumulated in the gut, liver and
kidney of mice in a MP size-dependent localization.” (Fournier et al., 2021). As shown, when
exposed to high amounts albeit during a short amount of time, microplastics accumulate in the
organs of the mice. Using rodents for experimentation is quite common and is not unusual.
Seeing how the accumulation of microplastics affects rodents gives a rough idea of how they
would behave in the human body. We see that the microplastics would accumulate largely in the
lungs and in the intestines once they are internalized. The lungs and intestines are vital organs
and smaller organs depend on them for proper function. In rodents microplastics have serious
effects when the scale reaches the human level accounting for the amount of microplastics that
people are exposed to everyday, it is easy to see why microplastics are becoming a huge concern
for the scientific community.
Health Effects of Microplastics
Microplastics are not natural in the world and can have serious consequences in human
health. Since people are not directly eating plastic, it arrives in the body largely in the air that
people breath and via food/water. A study conducted on human and rat cell culture concluded
that high amounts of microplastics can have, “a variety of biological effects, including physical
(particle) toxicity, leading to oxidative stress, secretion of cytokines, cellular damage,
inflammatory and immune reactions, and DNA damage, as well as neurotoxic and metabolic
effects” (VETHAAK & LEGLER, 2021). Microplastics act as a carrier for toxins, chemicals, and
hazardous proteins, keep in mind that some microplastics are small enough to pass through cell
membrane (VETHAAK & LEGLER, 2021). An interesting finding in (Fournier et al., 2021) is
the immunological effects of microplastics. Microplastics in the digestive system cause the
release of antibiotics which in turn create antibiotic resistant bacteria. A study conducted in
China analyzing the concentration of microplastics in shellfish that are consumed concluded,
“PAHs contributing to the pathogenesis through activation of AhR-mediated transcription caused
inflammatory skin lesions (Tauchi et al., 2005), lung cancer (Kalabus et al., 2012), breast cancer
(Kemp et al., 2006), forestomach tumors (Labib et al., 2013), and cardiovascular diseases
(Korashy and El-Kadi, 2006).” (Pan et al., 2022). Clearly microplastics are not good for your
health and can cause serious diseases. From cancers to antibiotic-resistant bacteria being found in
samples with a high concentration of microplastics, the implications for these findings are
astonishing. Since a vast number of people eat seafood and almost all seafood contains
microplastics to a certain extent anyone that consumes seafood in their main diet is exposing themselves to a potentially cancerous agent (Pan et al., 2022). This is a reality that much of the
world lives in, which may explain the cause high cancer rates that the world is currently
experiencing.
The effect of microplastics in seafood
Examining the amount of harmful microplastics in seafood can be beneficial to
understanding the role that they, microplastics, play in the ecosystem. A study conducted along
the coast of Spain looked at the species that were being used for human consumption and
analyzed the amount of harmful microplastics in the marine animals. The study found that 12.7%
of the marine life analyzed was found to be harmful (Janssens & Garcia-Vazquez, 2021. The
study also found that herbivories contained more plastic than their carnivorous counterpart.
Finally, the most shocking finding of the study was that most of the marine life in that area was
not safe for consumption (Janssens & Garcia-Vazquez, 2021). Only one region of the world can
not be used to make claims, when looking at Asia we see something similar. A study conducted
in China’s Dongshan Bay found that 80%-100% of the cultivated marine life in that area had
microplastics inside of them (Pan et al., 2022). The amount of microplastics found in marine life
that is meant for human consumption is astonishing. Even in completely separate oceans
microplastics are found in the marine life. This has serious implications for the billions of people
that consume seafood. The biggest implication of microplastics in seafood would be the health
crisis that would ensue once the damaging effects of microplastics start to appear. A new global
health crisis is bound to happen when consuming food that has such a great amount of
microplastic that it is deemed unsuitable for human consumption. Unfortunately, more research
needs to be done in order to know what lies ahead for people that do consume this seafood.
Finally, it is important to remember that many of the countries that consume high amounts of
seafood are impoverished nations, if a health crisis arises due to the microplastic in their food it
could be a rocky road of recovery for those nations that are impoverished.
Microplastics are everywhere, there is no way to avoid them. Almost every product that
people use in their daily lives has microplastics in them and the use of plastics is only going to
get bigger. There are many unknowns in the effects of microplastics in the environment and in
the health of people, however serious headway has been made in recent years. We now know
that microplastics can make their way into the ocean and into our food supply. Once food that
contains microplastics is consumed they can accumulate in major organs such as the liver and
kidneys, which is shown by experimentation that has been done on mice. Through studies
conducted in areas where seafood is cultivated, we also know that the true danger of
microplastics lies when the seafood is consumed whole, with the intestines such as in canned
products. There is no worldwide adopted method of disposing plastics in order to prevent the
harmful effects of microplastics to grip the world. As more and mor research is conducted new
methods of plastic disposal and recycle may reduce the amount of microplastics that is
circulating in the world.
References
Fournier, E., Etienne-Mesmin, L., Grootaert, C., Jelsbak, L., Syberg, K., Blanquet-Diot, S., &
Mercier-Bonin, M. (2021). Microplastics in the human digestive environment: A focus on
the potential and challenges facing in vitro gut model development. Science Direct .
Retrieved April 12, 2022, from https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jhazmat.2021.125632 Janssens,
L., & Garcia-Vazquez, E. (2021). Dangerous microplastics in Topshells and anemones
along the north coast of Spain. Marine Pollution Bulletin, 173, 112945.
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.marpolbul.2021.112945
Pan, Z., Liu, Q., Xu, J., Li, W., & Lin, H. (2022). Microplastic contamination in seafood
from Dongshan Bay in southeastern China and its health risk implication for human
consumption. Science Direct . Retrieved April 12, 2022, from
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envpol.2022.119163
Vethaak, Dick Vethaaka, & Legler, Juliette (2021, February 12). Microplastics and
human health – science.org. Science. Retrieved April 12, 2022, from
https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.abe5041

This entry is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International license.