http://www.seaturtles.org/article.php?id=2543
Toxic Plastic Contaminates the Ocean, Beaches, and Can Poison Wildlife
Posted by Chris Pincetich, Ph.D. on November 22nd, 2013
New scientific research has confirmed fears of the global impacts of
marine plastic pollution to marine life and marine ecosystems. Plastic
does adsorb toxic PCBs, PBDEs and PAHs* from seawater and does transfer
toxicity from adsorbed chemicals to fish that ingest them, found a new
study published in Nature yesterday. Experimental fish were fed a
“clean” diet, a diet with bits of virgin plastic, or a diet with bits of
plastic that had adsorbed contaminants while suspended in a marine
environment near San Diego, California. Toxicologists then dissected the
fish and determined that there was a significant transfer of PBDEs to
the fish tissue from the plastic that had adsorbed marine contaminants,
and that the livers of some fish developed cellular damage. This
controlled experiment confirmed the discussions I have been leading for
years on the potential eco-toxic impacts of marine plastic pollution to
young, endangered sea turtles.
Plastic can be a vector for increased pollutant exposure to fish, and
likely sea turtles and other marine wildlife, but how bad is the overall
contamination of plastic in the Pacific Ocean?