Microplastics found in dried fish in many Asian countries
Dried fish is a popular dish in many Asian countries – Screenshot Taiwan News
The research team led by Professor Hung Ching Chang (School of Marine Science of ) NSYSU) led study of 14 batches of marine dried fish from 7 countries and territories in Asia to see how dried fish species are being contaminated by microplastics.
The results showed that in terms of plastic pollution concentration, fish samples from Japan ranked first, followed by China, Sri Lanka.
They found that a round herring caught along the southeastern coast of Japan was the most contaminated of the samples studied.
The NSYSU team attributed this result to the fact that the Northeast Asian seas around Japan are hotbeds of microplastic pollution. This is an area with a much higher concentration of microplastics than the rest of the seas in the world.
Professor Hung’s research team presented the research results on May 2 – Photo: FOCUS TAIWAN
According to the study, 75.9% of samples of round herring species from Japan (officially known as Etrumeus micropus) contained microplastic particles. A batch of Japanese round herring had an average number of microplastics per gram of dried fish of 0.56, the highest among the studied samples.
That number far exceeds the dried Pacific sand fish sample taken in China, with 40% of the sample containing microplastics.
Other species reported to have microplastics were thin-bodied round herring from Sri Lanka (30%), short-nosed anchovies from Korea (12.5%) and general round herring from Taiwan (3.2%) and Thailand (0.2%).
The study also found that the most abundant polymer found in dried fish samples was polyethylene, which is commonly used to make plastic bags, bottles and baby bottles.
“This study is important because dried sea fish is a popular dish in Asian countries,” p Taiwan News quoted Professor Hung, commented.
In the immediate future, according to Mr. Hung, more studies are needed to evaluate the actual impact on human health if eating dried fish contaminated with microplastics. Such studies can contribute to the development and updating of new regulations on aquatic safety.
Microplastics is a term coined by ocean and marine ecologist Richard Thompson in 2004 in which he describes these as particles that are “less than 5mm in diameter”.
Since then, scientists have found microplastics everywhere from the world’s great oceans, in the Arctic and Antarctic ice, in shellfish, in table salt, in drinking water.
In March 2022, scientists at Vrije Universiteit (Amsterdam, the Netherlands) announced a shocking discovery when microplastic particles were found in human blood. Half of the blood samples in the study contained PET plastic, which is commonly used in beverage bottles.
In addition, a third of the samples contained polystyrene, a type of plastic used to package food and other consumer products, and a quarter of the samples contained polyethylene, the type of plastic found in plastic bags.
at Blogtuan.info – Source: tuoitre.vn – Read the original article here
