LONDON - There are an estimated 12 to 21 million tons of three of the most common types of microplastic in the top 200 meters of the Atlantic Ocean, according to a new study.
The research, led by the UK’s National Oceanography Centre (NOC), “scooped through layers” of the upper limits of the ocean during a research expedition through the middle of the Atlantic, the BBC reports.
The amount of plastic particles found “would be enough to fully load almost 1,000 container ships”, the broadcaster adds.
The lead author of the paper, Dr Katsiaryna Pabortsava from NOC, said: “Previously, we couldn’t balance the mass of floating plastic we observed with the mass we thought had entered the ocean since 1950.
This is because earlier studies hadn’t been measuring the concentrations of ‘invisible’ microplastic particles beneath the ocean surface. Our research is the first to have done this across the entire Atlantic, from the UK to the Falklands.”
Micro and nanoplastics are becoming a major environmental hazard across the globe, with the particles thought to pose a risk of cancer and infertility when entering human organs. So just how much of a risk do microplastics pose to our environment and our bodies?
What are they?
Microplastics are defined as pieces of any kind of plastic debris that measure less than 5mm in length. The Guardian says they are generally created by the disintegration of plastic litter and been found in rivers, lakes, drinking water supplies and in bottled water.
Another form of microplastics are plastic microbeads, which are often found in toiletries. Previous research has found that as many as 94,500 microbeads are flushed down the sink with each wash, and that some products contain as many as 2.8 million beads in a single bottle.
Are they dangerous to humans?
According to a study published earlier this year, humans eat an average of five grammes of plastic each week - equivalent to the weight of a credit card. However, it is not yet clear to how this may affect our bodies.
In its first review on the health risks of plastic in tap and bottled water, the World Health Organization said in August that microplastics “don’t appear to pose a health risk at current levels”.
