Effects of microplastics in freshwater fishes health and the implications for human health

Abstract

The presence of microplastics in aquatic environments has raised concerns about their abundance and potential hazards to aquatic organisms. This review provides insight into the problem that may be of alarm for freshwater fish. Plastic pollution is not confined to marine ecosystems; freshwater also comprises plastic bits, as the most of plastic fragments enter oceans via rivers. Microplastics (MPs) can be consumed by fish and accumulated due to their size and poor biodegradability. Furthermore, it has the potential to enter the food chain and cause health problems. Evidence of MPs s ingestion has been reported in >150 fish species from both freshwater and marine systems. However, microplastic quantification and toxicity in freshwater ecosystems have been underestimated, ignored, and not reported as much as compared to the marine ecosystem. However, their abundance, influence, and toxicity in freshwater biota are not less than in marine ecosystems. The interaction of MPs with freshwater fish, as well as the risk of human consumption, remains a mystery. Nevertheless, our knowledge of the impacts of MPs on freshwater fish is still very limited. This study detailed the status of the toxicity of MPs in freshwater fish. This review will add to our understanding of the ecotoxicology of microplastics on freshwater fish and give subsequent research directions.

Microplastic Quantification in Aquatic Birds: Biomonitoring the Environmental Health of the Panjkora River Freshwater Ecosystem in Pakistan

“…Numerous studies have shown that microplastics (MPs) are ingested by aquatic, terrestrial, and avian species and retained in different sections of the gastrointestinal tract [ 10 , 16 , 17 ]. Ingestion and retention can be linked to a variety of physical, physiological, neural, and hormonal issues, chiefly a reduction in the area of the intestine that is used to absorb nutrients, inhibition of gastric and pancreatic enzymatic activity, decreased steroid hormones, delayed ovulation, cytotoxicity, lipid oxidative damage in gills and muscle, and neurotoxicity through lipid oxidative damage [ 3 , 5 , 10 , 11 , 13 ].…”

Effect of different concentrations of stem juice of Oxalis tuberosa Mol. and juice of the fruit of Gaultheria glomerata (Cav.) Sleumer on the antioxidant activity of the heat-treated functional beverage

“…Many of the juice's healthful ingredients (Nechytailo et al, 2024), however, can be destroyed by the high processing temperatures. The food business has been pushed to innovate by consumer demand for healthier options, leading to the development of innovative technologies that reduce the degree of degradation to food's nutritional integrity (Gondal et al, 2023a;Odriozola-Serrano et al, 2022;De La Cruz-Marcos et al, 2023;Khan et al, 2024;Gondal and Tayyiba, 2022;Areche et al, 2022a, b).…”