Microplastics in Mussels, Oysters and Scallops

Generally, everyone is well aware of plastics and its disadvantages. Plastics are not biodegradable as natural leaves or natural materials.

- Monikandon Sukumaran*, Kesavan Devarayan and Ramar Marimuthu

These plastics break into small pieces of size with less than 5 mm and they are known as microplastics. By origin microplastics are classified in to primary and secondary. Plastic products, household uses of variety of plastics, construction materials and industrial applications are the primary sources. Secondary sources are those which are formed by fragmentation of these plastics which are discarded in to the environment.

Marine and Microplastics

The major source of microplastics in the marine environment is due to the discarding of the plastic wastes in to sea. Once plastics find their way in to the waterbodies or oceans it ends in to microplastic and interacts with food chain of the marine fishes, crustaceans, bivalves and mammals. Microplastics are found globally in the marine environment and the marine environment is affected by the quantity of microplastics they receive. Marine plastics present in the marine environment time have occupied all the compartments of the marine ecosystem and the food web. These microplastic pollutants are found across the different trophic levels of the marine ecosystem. It includes from the bottom of the marine food to the top level of the trophic level.

Microplastics and Human health risks