Assessing dietary exposure to microplastics through seafood consumption and potential accumulation of microplastics in aquatic organisms

Microplastics are a pollutant of emerging concern that have caught the attention of the scientific community. With the rapid increase in plastic production and spread, plastic debris is accumulating in the aquatic environment where they fragment into smaller pieces (<5mm). A range of organisms, especially marine invertebrates, are vulnerable to microplastic uptake, with seafood consumption a route for human exposure, which is an important component of our diet. Estimates of the exposure level of microplastics are constantly reported but their quantification and identification is still an issue to solve. The aim of this study is to assess the inherent risk of exposure to microplastics through seafood consumption, using the common oyster as a bioindicator, and to develop new techniques for identifying and quantifying microplastics in marine biota.

QAEHS PhD student Francisca Ribeiro.