OREANDA-NEWS. According to the scientific journal Environmental Health Perspectives, a comparison of more than 50 studies showed that in terms of the content of microplastic particles in the body, sea mollusks bypassed all other inhabitants of the ocean.

Scientists state that about 300 million tons of plastic waste ends up in wastewater and landfills around the world every year. Most of it cannot be decomposed by soil microbes, so this garbage remains almost intact for tens and even hundreds of years. When it enters the oceans, it collapses into huge clusters, similar to the so-called Great Pacific Garbage Patch.

Such particles do not stay in water for a long time, probably, they are eaten by sea inhabitants. As a result, microplastics can enter the human body along with fish meat and other seafood.

In a new study, Evangelos Danopoulos, an ecologist at the University of York in the UK, and his team estimated how many microplastics particles enter the human body along with seafood. To do this, they used the results of more than 50 studies that have been published over the past six years.

Research has shown that shellfish accumulate the most microplastics. For each gram of their mass, there are up to 9-10 plastic particles. Other marine life has less plastic. Thus, the maximum concentration of plastic in the body of crustaceans reached 8 particles per gram, and in fish - 3 particles per gram.

According to the study, citizens of China, Japan, USA, Australia and Canada suffer the most from the effects of seafood consumption.