Toxic chemicals in microplastic pollution swallowed by seabirds can poison their livers and threaten their survival, study reveals
- Scientists fed pellets infused with plastic additives to various seabird species
- Found the chemicals were stored in the liver and fatty tissue of the animals
- Plastic additive levels were found up to 1,200 times higher than normal
- Scientists have called these chemicals a ‘pervasive and growing threat’
Toxic chemicals from microplastic pollution gathers in the bodies of seabirds and is putting their survival at risk, a study has found.
Tests in the wild and in a lab revealed plastic additives accumulate in the birds’ livers and fatty tissues at extreme levels – up to 1,200 times the normal level.
Chemicals added to plastics include flame retardants and UV stabilisers, which are designed to make them more resilient and durable.
However, tpresence of these chemicals in seabirds has been slammed by scientists, who describe plastic pollution as a ‘pervasive and growing threat’.
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Chemicals added to plastics found in the liver and tissue of the birds flame retardants and UV stabilisers. They were infused into plastic pellets and scientists assessed how the chemicals travelled throughout their bodies (pictured). They found levels of the chemicals up to 1,200 times the normal level
Research published in the journal Current Biology from Hokkaido University in Japan predicts 99 per cent of seabirds will have ingested plastic waste by 2050.
Researchers, led by Dr Shouta Nakayama, write in the study: ‘Marine plastic debris contains both additives compounded during manufacturing and chemicals sorbed from ambient seawater.
‘The many toxic chemicals present and their adverse effects on those organisms that ingest plastics raise concerns about individual health and population-level impacts.’
Birds often get tangled in plastic or mistake it for food and eat it. Pictured, a graphic image of a seagull from 2018 that died after becoming tangled in a carrier bad on a barbed wire fence
The researchers fed plastic pellets to chicks of six different types of seabirds – including two species of albatross.
Between 1950 and 2010, sea bird populations have declined by 70 per cent.
Currently, nearly half of the world’s species are experiencing population declines, and 2 per cent are classified as globally threatened, the researchers say.
Seabirds, as well as many marine mammals, reptiles and fish, mistake litter in the waterways for food.
After unwillingly eating the plastic, it wreaks havoc in their bodies.
Macropollution – large chunks of plastic – cause blockages and can wrap around internal organs of animals, causing injury, malnutrition and even death.
But the chemicals inside the plastic litter also alter the innards of the birds, the latest study shows.
