Our Plastic Diet !

The warning signals have been sounding - loud and clear - for a long time.  The oceans have become the dumping ground for all sorts of plastic rubbish and we actually have a giant floating garbage patch of accumulated plastic in the middle of the Pacific ocean.

Some of this plastic rubbish will take centuries to break down into component parts, but other types degenerate through a mix of age and the ultra violet rays of the sun and in flake form drop down onto the ocean floor, where they are devoured by miniscule creatures.

That is one way that plastic gets into the food chain.  Those miniscule creatures become food for something bigger and so the process goes on until we humans add the bounty of the ocean to our diet.  Giant fishing fleets from all nations scour the sea in an ever widening search for what is now a major component of the food supply in many countries.

We have been warned that ingesting this plastic can be harmful to humans and now science has for the first time been able to measure the microplastics building up in the bodies of humans.  Scientists at the Austrian Environment Agency and the University of Vienna have been analysing stool samples from people of eight countries - and found microplastics present in every one.   In some cases,  nine different types of microplastic were found in each single sample and on average twenty microplastic particles were found in every 10 g of human waste.

In animal studies, the presence of microplastics in the gut have entered the bloodstream and the lymphatic system and even reach the liver.   These are particles of plastic less than five millimetre and there is every chance that their concentration in humans would be similar.  It has long been feared that this could damage the immune system, trigger inflammation and help carry toxins such as mercury or pesticide into the body.

It has been long believed that plastics  damage fertility, and in our western world the fertility rate has been decreasing and many couples seek assistance in starting a family.  It seems that this fertility drop corresponded with the age in which the discovery of plastics entered our lifestyle.

The answer to this problem is abundantly clear.  We need to stop the flow of plastics into the oceans and take steps to remover what is there already.  Even if by some miracle we could achieve that immediately, what is in the system will continue to enter our bodies for a long time into the future.

Perhaps we would be wised to restrict the volume of fish, prawns and other types of seafood to at least reduce the amount of microplastic damaging our bodies.  Now that the volume has been measured, further research will probably deliver more bad news !