Ana I. Catarino, Valeria Macchia, William G. Sanderson, Richard C. Thompson, Theodore B. Henry,

Low levels of microplastics (MP) in wild mussels indicate that MP ingestion by humans is minimal compared to exposure via household fibres fallout during a meal,
Environmental Pollution,
Volume 237,
2018,
Pages 675-684,
ISSN 0269-7491,

Abstract:

Microplastics (MPs) are the most numerous debris reported in
marine environments and assessment of the amounts of MPs that accumulate
in wild organisms is necessary for risk assessment. Our objective was to
assess MP contamination in mussels collected around the coast of
Scotland (UK) to identify characteristics of MPs and to evaluate risk of
human exposure to MPs via ingestion of mussels. We deployed caged
mussels (Mytilus edulis) in an urbanised estuary (Edinburgh, UK) to
assess seasonal changes in plastic pollution, and collected mussels
(Mytilus spp and subtidal Modiolus modiolus) from eight sampling
stations around Scotland to enumerate MP types at different locations.
We determined the potential exposure of humans to household dust fibres
during a meal to compare with amounts of MPs present in edible mussels.
The mean number of MPs in M. modiolus was 0.086 ± 0.031 (SE, n = 6)/g ww
(3.5 ± 1.29 (SE) per mussel). In Mytilus spp, the mean number of MPs/g
ww was 3.0 ± 0.9 (SE, n = 36) (3.2 ± 0.52 (SE) per mussel), but weight
dependent. The visual accuracy of plastic fibres identification was
estimated to be between 48 and 50%, using Nile Red staining and FT-IR
methodologies, respectively, halving the observed amounts of MPs in wild
mussels. We observed an allometric relationship between the number of
MPs and the mussels wet weight. Our predictions of MPs ingestion by
humans via consumption of mussels is 123 MP particles/y/capita in the UK
and can go up to 4620 particles/y/capita in countries with a higher
shellfish consumption. By comparison, the risk of plastic ingestion via
mussel consumption is minimal when compared to fibre exposure during a
meal via dust fallout in a household (13,731–68,415 particles/Y/capita).

https://drive.google.com/open?id=1i21GXMPUXEKWR_U1Cd7Kxcm0Rvosstkr
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envpol.2018.02.069.

(http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0269749117344445)