Microscopic plastic particles have been found by a Duke University graduate student inside the fats and the lungs of two-thirds of the marine mammals. And the graduate student suggested that these microscopic plastic particles (microplastics) can travel outside of the marine mammals’ digestive tract.
The aim of the study conducted by the Duke University graduate student was intended for Environmental Pollution that was scheduled for the October 15th edition. The study itself will appear online by this week.
The reason for the appearance of microscopic plastic particles inside marine mammals’ tissue is still uncertain. The student still also feel hesitant about the harmfulness of the microplastic particles to the mammals’ health. But in fact, another study has stated that microplastic particles can possibly cause hormone mimics and endocrine disruptors.
“This is an extra burden on top of everything else they face: climate change, pollution, noise, and now they’re not only ingesting plastic and contending with the big pieces in their stomachs, they’re also being internalized,” a fifth-year graduate student at the Duke University Marine Lab called Greg Merrill Jr., explained. “Some proportion of their mass is now plastic.”
Read also : Melting Permafrost Might Cause Threats For Humans
From the previous study of the damage microplastic particles can cause, the scientists drew the conclusion that plastics tend to stick easily to fats since they are lipophilic. Plastics are also attracted easily to the sound-producing part of the toothed whale’s forehead and the fat pads along the lower jaw that focus sound to the whales’ internal ears. The study consists of about 12 species observed.
“For me, this just underscores the ubiquity of ocean plastics and the scale of this problem,” Merrill said, highlighting how dangerous plastics separated all over the oceans is.
