SYDNEY, June 12 (Xinhua) -- Average person is eating around 250 grams of microplastics every year, or the equivalent of one credit card per week.
That’s according to a new study from the University of Newcastle in Australia on Wednesday, which was commissioned by the World Wildlife Fund (WWF).
The No Plastic in Nature Report outlines how plastic materials eventually break down into tiny microscopic pieces over time.
When this happens, microplastics can then find their way into the food chain with water, seafood, beer and salt recording the highest presence of plastic materials.
“These findings must serve as a wake-up call... Not only are plastics polluting our oceans and waterways and killing marine life, it’s in all of us and we can’t escape consuming plastics,” WWF International Director General Marco Lambertini said.
Calling for an urgent global focus to tackle the crisis, Lambertini said, “We’re all clear that this is a worldwide problem that can only be solved by addressing the root cause of plastic pollution.”
“If we don’t want plastic in our bodies, we need to stop the millions of tons of plastic that continue leaking into nature every year.”
“We need urgent action at government, business and consumer levels, and a global treaty with global targets to address plastic pollution,” Lambertini said.
Combining over 50 studies that examined the ingestion of microplastics by people, project co-lead Dr. Thava Palanisami from the University of Newcastle said the report is an important step towards understanding the impact of plastic pollution on humans.
“While the awareness of microplastics and their impact on the environment is increasing, this study has helped to provide an accurate calculation of ingestion rates for the first time,” the researcher explained.
“Developing a method for transforming counts of microplastic particles into masses will help determine the potential toxicological risks for humans moving forward.”
