A review of microplastic pollution in commercial fish for human consumption

Abstract

Abstract Today microplastics (MPs) have received worldwide attention as an emerging environmental pollution which is one of the four major global environmental threat and health hazard to human as well. Unfortunately, MPs have been founded in the all environments and media include air, water resources, sediments, and soil. It should not be forgotten MPs have also been detected in food and processing products like tuna. MPs can be ingested by marine organisms such as zooplankton, fish and birds. Accumulation and distribution of MPs by commercially important aquatic organisms is expected to lead to greater exposure risk for human populations with possible adverse effects over time. The aim of this work was to review the published literature regarding the contamination of commercial fish muscle for human consumption. Furthermore, a short revision of the environmental contamination and human health effects by MPs are included. We also estimated human daily intake considering the worldwide contamination of commercial fish muscle ranged from 0.016 items/g muscle of fish to 6.06 items/g muscle of fish. MPs have been found in 56.5% of the commercial fish samples analysed here. As fish is used in human food table across the word, they constitute a long-term exposure route for all humans and raise the concern about the potential public health risk.