The work, led by researchers from the universities of Hull and York, in the United Kingdom, analysed more than 50 studies produced between 2014 and 2020 to assess the levels of micro plastics contamination in the world in fish, crustaceans and molluscs. According to the meta-analysis, molluscs have 0-10.5 micro plastics per gram, crustaceans 0.1-8.6 and fish 0-2.9.

Molluscs collected off the coast of Asia are the most contaminated, indicating that this area is the most polluted by plastic in the world. "Micro plastics have been found in a number of organs, such as intestines and liver. Molluscs like oysters, mussels and scallops are eaten whole, while larger fish are only a part," said one of the authors of the paper, quoted in a statement from York University Evangelos Danopoulos.

According to the researcher, a fundamental step to understand the impact of marine pollution by microplastics (tiny particles of plastic waste) on human health, still unknown, is to know what concentrations are ingested by people when they consume molluscs, crustaceans or fish . "We can start by checking the amount of fish, molluscs and crustaceans consumed and measuring the amount of micro plastics in these species", pointed out Evangelos Danopoulos.