Plastic pollution threatens harm to humans and wildlife, scientists warn

Alarming new evidence is emerging of the potential harm caused by pervasive plastic pollution, scientists said on Friday.

Significant levels of microscopic plastic particles are being discovered in many human organs, including the placenta, while adverse health effects are emerging in animals.

On average people now consume around 5 grammes of microplastics a week — ingested in food and drink and inhaled by breathing polluted air — Professor Philip Demokritou of Rutgers University told the American Association for the Advancement of Science annual meeting in Washington.

“What is really alarming is that microplastics enter cells and interfere with cell nuclei, which raises concerns about potential DNA damage,” he said. “Another alarming example is that they can interfere with the digestion and absorption of important nutrients.”

Separately on Friday scientists at the Natural History Museum in London announced the discovery of a new disease in seabirds caused solely by the ingestion of plastic. They have called the condition plasticosis — a fibrotic disease caused by small pieces of plastic inflaming the digestive tract. Persistent inflammation damages the tissues, which become scarred and deformed.

Studying flesh-footed shearwaters on Australia’s Lord Howe Island, they found that the proventriculus — the first part of the birds’ stomach — had widespread scarring. Birds that ingested more plastic had more scarring.

“While these birds can look healthy on the outside, they’re not doing well on the inside,” said Alex Bond, the museum’s curator in charge of birds. “This study is the first time that stomach tissue has been investigated in this way and shows that plastic consumption can cause serious damage to these birds’ digestive system.”

Affected birds become more vulnerable to infection and parasites, while they lose some capacity to digest food and absorb vitamins.

At the AAAS meeting Luisa Campagnolo of the University of Rome Tor Vergata outlined recent research by Italian scientists who discovered tiny plastic particles from various sources in human placentas collected from six women with normal pregnancies.

Another study identified plastic particles “not just in the placental tissue but also in the meconium, the baby’s first faeces — meaning that the particles could cross the placenta into the foetus”, Campagnolo said

“A huge number of different types of plastic particles were identified,” she added. “The most abundant is PVC but basically all other plastic types that are part of everyday consumer products were present.”

Craig Bennett, chief executive of The Wildlife Trusts, the UK conservation group, said the research “underlines my fear that we are witnessing just the very beginning of the plastic problem. Our seas, rivers and countryside are already plagued by plastic pollution. Research shows how humans and wildlife consume microplastics through eating, drinking and breathing.”