It isn’t just seafood that’s loaded with microplastic pollution. In a new study, scientists found microplastics in nearly 90 of sampled meats and meat-like alternatives – including seafood, chicken breasts, beef steaks, tofu, and plant-based burgers.
It’s become well-documented that seafood is often tainted with the presence of microplastics due to the shockingly high quantities of plastic in the planet’s oceans. For instance, a 2017 review found that regular eaters of fish and shellfish could be ingesting up to 11,000 microparticles a year.
However, until now, there’s been relatively little research into the prevalence of plastic in terrestrial protein sources, like beef and chicken.
To pry into the issue, scientists at Ocean Conservancy and the University of Toronto sampled 16 protein types, including highly processed protein products and minimally processed “fresh” products.
How dangerous are they? I see lots of articles about them being in everything but not much about what they actually do when they get inside you.
Tiniest pieces of plastic from for example tires would classify as fine dust particles, which is like a containerword for tiny particles from any kind of material, as long as it’stiny enough it counts as PM. PM10 and PM2.5 is somewhat researched. Breathing in fine dust particles often and in large quantities for sure ain’t healthy, correlation with lung irritation, asthma, etc. Whether it’s specifically the plastic share of the PM that’s bad: still unknown I think.
