Alex Rose-Innes
It now seems that plastic pollution may even play a role in transmission of marine terrestrial parasites. Scientists previously found this phenomenon difficult to research, but the negative effects on human and marine health cannot, with new findings, be ignored.
Laboratory experiments show that even the tiniest pieces of plastic in the ocean provide transport to faecal pathogens in saltwater. It is dangerous news for bathers and conservationists alike.
Experts have for a long time expressed their concerns about the increase of macro plastics in the environment. However, it had now been proved that micro plastics, even less than 5 mm in diameter, could be even more hazardous.
The new study combined three faeces-vectored pathogens with microbeads and microfibers in seawater to determine if these disease-causing agents could stick to and live on particles. The latest data shows higher concentrations of pathogens per gram of plastic than per millilitre of surrounding seawater.
Micro plastics had already been found in seafood species and the latest study found previously unknown ways for pathogens to enter marine species, causing illnesses in the animals themselves or in humans consuming them. The World Health Organization (WHO), already in 2010, identified these specific pathogens as underestimated causes of illness from shellfish consumption.
“It’s easy for people to dismiss plastic problems as something that doesn’t matter for them, like, ‘I’m not a turtle in the ocean; I won’t choke on this thing,’” says Karen Shapiro, a University of California School of Veterinary Medicine infectious disease researcher and co-author on the paper. “But once you start talking about disease and health, there’s more power to implement change. Micro plastics can actually move germs around and these germs end up in our water and our food.”
Recently, Durban bathers ignored warnings that millions of litres of faecal matter had been pumped into the harbour by the municipality.
