HOW

MICROPLASTICS
ENTER THE FOOD
CHAIN AND THEIR
HARMFUL
EFFECTS ON
ANIMALS AND
HUMAN BEINGS.
ABSTRACT.

Plastic has been an incredibly useful and indispensable material in all aspects of human life.
Many advances in medicine, technology, or industry would not have been possible without them.
However, its easy accessibility and low cost have led to global misuse. The production of
plastics from different chemical agents is very easy but unfortunately difficult to reuse or
recycle, and it is thrown away as litter, incinerated, or disposed of in a landfill. Plastic once in the
environment begins to degrade to very small sizes. Thus, many animals mistake them for food,
so plastic enters a marine, terrestrial or freshwater food web. These microplastics although
chemically inert have been shown to act as tiny "bio-sponges" for harmful chemicals found in the
environment changing the nature of a plastic particle from chemically harmless to potentially
toxic. It was believed that microparticles would simply pass through the gastrointestinal tract of
animals and humans with no biological effect. However, studies have shown that they are
sometimes taken up and distributed throughout the circulatory and lymphatic system and may be
stored in the fatty tissues of different organisms. The result of their uptake of them showed
potential carcinogenic effects, liver dysfunction, and endocrine disruption. This review focuses
on micro- and nano plastics and their way of entering the marine and freshwater food webs, with
particular attention to microplastic trophic transfer, their toxic side effects, and their influence on
the human consumer in health and safety in the future.
MICROPLASTICS.

Microplastics are fragments of any type of plastic less than 5 mm (0.20 in) in length, according
to the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and the European
Chemicals Agency. They cause pollution by entering natural ecosystems from a variety of
sources, including cosmetics, clothing, food packaging, and industrial processes.

Because plastics degrade slowly (often over hundreds to thousands of years), microplastics have
a high probability of ingestion, incorporation into, and accumulation in the bodies and tissues of
many organisms. The toxic chemicals from both the ocean and runoff can also biomagnify the
food chain. In terrestrial ecosystems, microplastics have been demonstrated to reduce the
viability of soil ecosystems and reduce the weight of earthworms. The cycle and movement of
microplastics in the environment are not fully known, but research is currently underway to
investigate the phenomenon. Deep layer ocean sediment surveys in China (2020) show the
presence of plastics in deposition layers far older than the invention of plastics, leading to the
suspected underestimation of microplastics in surface sample ocean surveys. Microplastics have
also been found in the high mountains, at great distances from their source.

Microplastics have also been found in human blood, though their effects are largely unknown.

CLASSIFICATION OF MICROPLASTICS.

PRIMARY MICROPLASTICS.

Primary microplastics are small pieces of plastic that are purposefully manufactured. They are
used in facial cleansers, cosmetics, or air blasting technology. In some cases, their use in
medicine as vectors for drugs was reported. Microplastic "scrubbers", used in exfoliating hand
cleansers and facial scrubs, have replaced traditionally used natural ingredients, including
ground almond shells, oatmeal, and pumice. Primary microplastics have also been produced for
use in air blasting technology. This process involves blasting acrylic, melamine,
or polyester microplastic scrubbers at machinery, engines, and boat hulls to remove rust and
paint. As these scrubbers are used repeatedly until they diminish in size and their cutting power
is lost, they often become contaminated with heavy metals such as cadmium, chromium,
and lead. Although many companies have committed to reducing the production of microbeads,
there are still many bioplastic microbeads that also have a long degradation life cycle similar to
normal plastic.

SECONDARY MICROPLASTICS.

Secondary plastics are small pieces of plastic derived from the breakdown of larger plastic
debris, both at sea and on land. Over time, a culmination of physical, biological, and
chemphotodegradation, including photo-oxidation caused by sunlight exposure, can reduce the
structural integrity of plastic debris to a size that is eventually undetectable to the naked
eye. This process of breaking down large plastic material into much smaller pieces is known as
fragmentation. It is considered that microplastics might further degrade to be smaller in size,
although the smallest microplastic reportedly detected in the oceans at present is 1.6 micrometres
(6.3×10−5 in) in diameter. The prevalence of microplastics with uneven shapes suggests that
fragmentation is a key source.

NANOPLASTICS.

Depending on the definition used, nano plastics are less than 1 μm (i.e. 1000 nm) or less than
100 nm in size. Speculations over nano plastics in the environment range from it being a
temporary byproduct during the fragmentation of microplastics to it being an invisible
environmental threat at potentially high and continuously rising concentrations. The presence of
nanoplastics in the North Atlantic Subtropical Gyre has been confirmed and recent developments
in Raman spectroscopy coupled with optical tweezers (Raman Tweezers) as well as nano-
Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (nano-FTIR) or atomic force infrared (AFM-IR) are
promising answers shortly regarding the neoplastic quantity in the environment. Fluorescence
could represent a unique tool for the identification and quantification of nano plastics since it
allows the development of fast, easy, cheap, and sensitive methods.

Nanoplastics are thought to be a risk to environmental and human health. Due to their small size,
nano plastics can cross cellular membranes and affect the functioning of cells. Nanoplastics are
lipophilic and models show that polyethylene nano plastics can be incorporated into the
hydrophobic core of lipid bilayers. Nanoplastics are also shown to cross the epithelial membrane
of fish accumulating in various organs including the gall bladder, pancreas, and brain. Little is
known about the adverse health effects of nanoplastics in organisms including humans. In
zebrafish, polystyrene nano plastics can induce a stress response pathway altering glucose and
cortisol levels, which is potentially tied to behavioural changes in stress phases. In Daphnia,
polystyrene nano plastic can be ingested by the freshwater Cladocera Daphnia pulex and affect
its growth and reproduction as well as induce stress defence, including the ROS production and
MAPK-HIF-1/NF-κB-mediated antioxidant system.

HOW MICROPLASTICS GET INTO THE FOOD SYSTEM.

Plastic has already entered the food chain. Animals carry microplastics in their bodies. When
they are themselves eaten, those microplastics are also ingested. This process is called the
‘trophic transfer’ of microplastics. Since one animal eats another, microplastics can move
through the food chain. The main question is what happens to the toxins and chemicals that are
associated with these plastics.

Plastic debris, ranging from particles too small for the naked eye to see to metres-long industrial
fishing nets affects the health of all kinds of sea life. In the worst cases, it can be deadly.

Animals mistake some plastic for food or accidentally ingest it, while other types of plastic,
especially fishing gear, can entrap or injure them. The results can be harrowing. According to
one study, more than half of sea turtles have ingested some form of plastic, including floating
plastic bags they mistake for jellyfish. In addition, sea life and birds snap up small pieces of
plastic, such as Styrofoam bits, that look like fish eggs.

Scientists are increasingly concerned about what microplastics could be doing to live below
water, especially when it is eaten or ingested.

Scientists have found microplastics in oceans, lakes and rivers worldwide.

HOW MICROPLASTICS MOVE THROUGH THE FOOD WEB.

Microplastics enter the food web when animals accidentally ingest or eat them. At the bottom of
the food chain, zooplankton, which are microscopic organisms eaten by all kinds of fish, ingest
small pieces of plastic that can wind up in the bodies of the animals who eat them. When animals
eat other animals that have already ingested plastic, they consume that plastic too.

In other cases, large animals such as humpback whales, which filter water as they move, ingest
microplastics directly. Microplastics have also been found inside mussels, oysters and clams,
which filter several litres of water per day. There are so many trillions of microplastics floating
in the ocean that 5 Gyres has taken to calling it “plastic smog” and in some areas along B. C’s
coast, the concentration of zooplankton is the same as the concentration of microplastics.

Eventually, such particles can move up to the predators at the top of the food chain, which face
risks from a variety of chemicals, including those in plastic.

Animals at the bottom of the ocean are also at risk. Scientists have found plastic fibres in
crustaceans at six of the deepest points in the Pacific Ocean.

Small, round microplastics like bits of Styrofoam and nurdles are particularly insidious because
they resemble fish eggs.

Plastics are rife with contaminants. Plastics often contain flame retardants, colourants and other
chemicals before they enter the ocean. Once there, they absorb pollutants in the water,
accumulating as much as a million times more chemicals than the surrounding water. Research
indicates they can have a variety of negative effects on marine life that ingest them, including
reducing survival, changes in immune function and reproductive stress.
Some animals, including birds, are at risk of not taking in enough nutrients and starving because
plastic pieces they consume can trick them into feeling full. But fish don’t face the same risks,
for them, the issue is the chemicals the plastics contain. Fish eat crabs and rocks and everything.
They have no problem passing these things, but it is the acidic environment of their digestive
system moving the contaminants into the fish.
Figure 1. This diagram illustrates how different sizes of plastic affect ocean life, either directly
by ingestion or entanglement (thick arrows), or indirectly via food sources which have ingested it
(thin arrows).

When plastic ends up in the environment, it tends to bind with environmental pollutants. With
plastic that moves through the food chain, the attached toxins can also move and accumulate in
animal fat and tissue through a process called bio-accumulation. In addition, chemicals are often
added to plastic during the production process, to give them some desired properties. These
chemicals can in turn leak from the plastic, even when that plastic is inside the body of an
animal.

HARMFUL EFFECTS OF MICROPLASTICS ON ANIMALS AND HUMANS.

ANIMALS

Microplastics can become embedded in animals' tissue through ingestion or respiration. Various
annelid species, such as deposit-feeding lugworms (Arenicola marina), have been shown to have
microplastics embedded in their gastrointestinal tracts. Many crustaceans, like the shore
crab Carcinus maenas, have been seen to integrate microplastics into both their respiratory and
digestive tracts. Plastic particles are often mistaken by fish for food which can block their
digestive tracts sending incorrect feeding signals to the brains of the animals. New research
revealed, however, that fish ingest microplastics inadvertently rather than intentionally.

Figure 2. Representation of the exposure of marine life to microplastics.

Some corals such as Pocillopora verrucosa have also been found to ingest microplastics. It can
take up to 14 days for microplastics to pass through an animal (as compared to a normal
digestion period of 2 days), but enmeshment of the particles in animals' gills can prevent
elimination entirely. When microplastic-laden animals are consumed by predators, the
microplastics are then incorporated into the bodies of higher trophic-level feeders. For example,
scientists have reported plastic accumulation in the stomachs of lantern fish which are small filter
feeders and are the main prey for commercial fish like tuna and swordfish. Microplastics also
absorb chemical pollutants that can be transferred into the organism's tissues. Small animals are
at risk of reduced food intake due to false satiation and resulting starvation or other physical
harm from the microplastics.

A study done at the Argentinean coastline of the Rio de la Plata estuary found the presence of
microplastics in the guts of 11 species of coastal freshwater fish. These 11 species of fish
represented four different feeding
habits: detritivore, planktivore, omnivore and ichthyophagous. This study is one of the few so far
to show the ingestion of microplastics by freshwater organisms.

Bottom feeders, such as benthic sea cucumbers, who are non-selective scavengers that feed
on debris on the ocean floor, ingest large amounts of sediment. It has been shown that four
species of sea cucumber (Thyonella gemmate, Holothuria floridana, H. grisea and Cucumaria
frondosa) ingested between 2- and 20-fold more PVC fragments and between 2- and 138-fold
more nylon line fragments (as much as 517 fibres per organism) based on plastic-to-sand grain
ratios from each sediment treatment. These results suggest that individuals may be selectively
ingesting plastic particles. This contradicts the accepted indiscriminate feeding strategy of sea
cucumbers and may occur in all presumed non-selective feeders when presented with
microplastics.

Bivalves, important aquatic filter feeders, have also been shown to ingest microplastics and
nanoplastics. Upon exposure to microplastics, bivalve filtration ability decreases. Multiple
cascading effects occur as a result, such as immunotoxicity and neurotoxicity. Decreased
immune function occurs due to reduced phagocytosis and NF-κB gene activity. The impaired
neurological function is a result of the inhibition of ChE and suppression of neurotransmitter
regulatory enzymes. When exposed to microplastics, bivalves also experience oxidative stress,
indicating an impaired ability to detoxify compounds within the body, which can ultimately
damage DNA. Bivalve gametes and larvae are also impaired when exposed to microplastics.
Rates of developmental arrest and developmental malformities increase, while rates of
fertilization decrease. When bivalves have been exposed to microplastics as well as other
pollutants such as POPs, mercury or hydrocarbons in lab settings, toxic effects were shown to be
aggravated.

Not only fish and free-living organisms can ingest microplastics. Scleractinian corals, which are
primary reef-builders, have been shown to ingest microplastics under laboratory
conditions. While the effects of ingestion on these corals have not been studied, corals can easily
become stressed and bleached. Microplastics have been shown to stick to the exterior of the
corals after exposure in the laboratory. The adherence to the outside of corals can potentially be
harmful, because corals cannot handle sediment or any particulate matter on their exterior and
slough it off by secreting mucus, expending energy in the process, increasing the likelihood of
mortality.

Marine biologists in 2017 discovered that three-quarters of the underwater seagrass in

the Turneffe Atoll off the coast of Belize had microplastic fibres, shards, and beads stuck to it.
The plastic pieces had been overgrown by epibionts (organisms that naturally stick themselves to
seagrass). Seagrass is part of the barrier reef ecosystem and is fed on by parrotfish, which in turn
are eaten by humans. These findings, published in Marine Pollution Bulletin, maybe "the first
discovery of microplastics on aquatic vascular plants... [and] only the second discovery of
microplastics on marine plant life anywhere in the world."

It is not just aquatic animals which may be harmed. Microplastics can stunt the growth of
terrestrial plants and earthworms.

In 2019, the first European records of microplastic items in amphibians' stomach content were
reported in specimens of the common European newt (Triturus carnifex). This also represented
the first evidence for Caudata worldwide, highlighting that the emerging issue of plastics is a
threat even in remote high-altitude environments.

Zooplankton ingests microplastic beads (1.7–30.6 μm) and excretes faecal matter contaminated
with microplastics. Along with ingestion, the microplastics stick to the appendages and
exoskeleton of the zooplankton. Zooplankton, among other marine organisms, consume
microplastics because they emit similar info chemicals, notably dimethyl sulfide, just
as phytoplankton do. Plastics such as high-density polyethylene (HDPE), low-density
polyethylene (LDPE), and polypropylene (PP) produce dimethyl sulfide odours. These types of
plastics are commonly found in plastic bags, food storage containers, and bottle caps. Green and
red filaments of plastics are found in planktonic organisms and seaweeds.

Not only do animals and plants ingest microplastics, but some microbes also live on the surface
of microplastics. This community of microbes form a slimy biofilm which, according to a 2019
study, has a unique structure and possesses a special risk, because microplastic biofilms have
been proven to provide a novel habitat for colonization that increases overlap between different
species, thus spreading pathogens and antibiotic-resistant genes through horizontal gene transfer.
Then, due to rapid movement through waterways, these pathogens can be moved very quickly
from their origin to another location where a specific pathogen may not be naturally present,
spreading the potential disease.

HUMANS.

According to a comprehensive review of scientific evidence published by the European

Union's Scientific Advice Mechanism in 2019, "little is known concerning the human health
risks of nano- and microplastics, and what is known is surrounded by considerable uncertainty".
The authors of the review identify the main limitations as the quality or methodology of the
research to date. Since "the poison is in the dose", the review concludes that "there is a need to
understand the potential modes of toxicity for different size-shape-type NMP combinations in
carefully selected human models, before robust conclusions about 'real' human risks can be
made".

Mean/median intake of microplastics in humans are at levels considered to be safe in humans;

however, some individuals may sometimes exceed these limits; the effects, if any, of this are
unknown. It is unknown whether and to what degree microplastics bioaccumulate in
humans. Research reported in 2022 identified, for the first time, the presence of polymers in
human blood in 17 of 22 healthy volunteers. The mean of the sum quantifiable concentration of
plastic particles was 1.6 mg/L. The stated purpose of the study was to develop a sampling and
analytic method that could be used to detect plastics in human blood.

A recent sub-chronic study investigated methacrylate-based polymer beads (> 10 μm) in food for
therapeutic purposes and it found no sign of polymer beads' bioaccumulation in mice organs
apart from the gastrointestinal tract. The microplastics ingested by fish and crustaceans can be
subsequently consumed by humans at the end of the food chain. Microplastics are found in the
air, water, and food that humans eat, especially seafood; however, the degree of absorption and
retention is unclear. However, ingestion of microplastics via food may be relatively minor; for
example, while mussels are known to accumulate microplastics, humans are predicted to be
exposed to more microplastics in household dust than by consuming mussels.

There are three main areas of potential concern with microplastics: the plastics themselves may
have some effect on human physiology, microplastics might complex with heavy metals or other
chemical compounds in the environment and act as a vector for bringing them into the body, and
microplastics might serve as vectors for pathogens. It is as yet unknown if exposure to
microplastics at the levels found in the environment represents a "real" risk to humans; research
into the subject is ongoing.
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