Tag Archives: Group 2

Must-Read: “New Link in the Food Chain? Marine Plastic Pollution and Seafood Safety”

Many people are not concerned about the issue of increasing plastic consumption and its pollution into our oceans. It may not be necessarily that people don’t care. It could very well be that they do care, but not enough because it does not directly affect them/us. Something that may or may not change our minds on the issue: “New Link in the Food Chain? Marine Plastic Pollution and Seafood Safety.” This is an article that was published in the Environmental Health Perspectives journal that talks about the potential impact marine plastics can have on humans through our food chain.

Group 2’s focus is on the effect that plastic pollution can indirectly have on humans. It is an intriguing topic and is definitely concerning. The article talks about plastic’s tendency to “sorb” or take up “persistent, bioaccumulative, and toxic substances,” which can be found in the bodies of water we are polluting. The article then discusses how these toxic-sorbed plastics find their ways into marine animals when they eat. As seen in Ana Luiza’s video, even the smallest of organisms are documented as having consumed microplastics. As we go up the food chain, the plastics follow, all the way up to commonly eaten seafood like tuna and swordfish and ultimately making it’s way to us. I think this article is a must-read for anyone even remotely concerned about their own health and of course the plastics issue at large.

This food chain issue is an interesting piece to the puzzle that is plastic pollution. A lot of what was talked about in the article is not yet proven by scientific research, which is why some people are not convinced. Funding for research on this topic is harder to get because of greater concern in other things (overfishing, acidification) and although we have a lot more to learn, it is comforting to know that the EPA and other government agencies are starting to look into it. By 2016, the EPA plans to launch a full-scale “inquiry” into effects on human health in relation to chemical loading effects on plastic litter. I’d urge everyone to give this article a read because it gives us a good understanding of what we know, what we can infer, and what we still have to learn about plastic’s harmful link in our food chain.

 

Link here: 

Download (PDF, Unknown)

How do marine plastics affect us anyway? (Group 2’s research)

 

This video was posted on Youtube by a nonprofit organization called Seas at Risks, which aims to influence public policy regarding the protection of the marine environment. Although this video is quite comical, featuring cartoon characters singing about plastics ending up in the marine environment, it is also informative because it illustrates the apathetic perspective of many humans regarding the marine plastics issue. Many people know about the marine plastic problem, but not many care enough about the problem to do anything to combat it, probably because they don’t see the effect it will have on them directly. My group has decided to focus our Science Forward research on how marine plastics impact humans, in order to prove that plastics in the oceans is an issue people should care about because it actually does have an effect on individuals.

One study my group came across in their research was a paper describing an experiment conducted by Chelsea Rochman, who is part of the Department of Anatomy, Physiology, and cell biology at the University of California. In this experiment, two groups of fish were examined. In one group, pellets containing plastics were placed in the water the fish were swimming in. In the other group, no plastic pellets were placed. After two months, it was determined that the fish that may have ingested plastic showed an increase in harmful substances like PCBs. A statistical analysis was conducted and although the presence of PCBs in the fish that may have eaten plastic was not found to be statistically significant, that doesn’t mean that the plastic couldn’t have caused this increase. The results of the statistical analysis could be attributed to small sample size or less plastic ingested than would be ingested in the open ocean. Plastic consumption can very well be harming fish that humans will ultimately eat.

Taking this study into account along with our other research, our group has recognized that thinking about how marine plastics will affect humans is a topic that allows for a personal connection. Marine plastics affect humans and although our research is far from over, we are starting to see the negative effects plastics have.