Microplastics in Sea Turtles, Marine Mammals and Humans: A One Environmental Health Perspective

Abstract

Microplastics are ubiquitous pollutants in the marine environment and a health concern. They are generated directly for commercial purposes or indirectly from the breakdown of larger plastics. Examining a toxicological profile for microplastics is a challenge due to their large variety of physico-chemical properties and toxicological behavior. In addition to their concentration, other parameters such as polymer type, size, shape and color are important to consider in their potential toxicity. Microplastics can adsorb pollutants such as polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) or metals on their surface and are likely to contain plastic additives that add to their toxicity. The observations of microplastics in seafood increased concern for potential human exposure. Since literature considering microplastics in humans is scarce, using a One Environmental Health approach can help better inform about potential human exposures. Marine mammals and sea turtles are long-lived sentinel species regularly used for biomonitoring the health status of the ocean and share trophic chain and habitat with humans. This review considers the available research regarding microplastic and plastic fiber exposures in humans, marine mammals and turtles. Overall, across the literature, the concentration of microplastics, size, color, shape and polymer types found in GI tract and feces from sea turtles, marine mammals and humans are similar, showing that they might be exposed to the same microplastics profile. Additionally, even if ingestion is a major route of exposure due to contaminated food and water, dermal and inhalation studies in humans have provided data showing that these exposures are also health concerns and more effort on these routes of exposures is needed. In vitro studies looked at a variety of endpoints showing that microplastics can induce immune response, oxidative stress, cytotoxicity, alter membrane integrity and cause differential expression of genes. However, these studies only considered three polymer types and short-term exposures, whereas, due to physiological relevance, prolonged exposures might be more informative.

Personal protective equipment (PPE) pollution associated with the COVID-19 pandemic along the coastline of Agadir, Morocco

“…Moreover, exposure to weathering conditions, such as UV irradiation and physical abrasion, exacerbates the release of MPs ( Wang et al, 2021 ). MPs are ubiquitous in the environment ( Dioses-Salinas et al, 2020 ; Dobaradaran et al, 2018 ; Takdastan et al, 2021 ), and many studies recorded their presence in plankton ( Lin, 2016 ), seaworms ( Missawi et al, 2020 ), earthworms ( Rillig et al, 2017 ), mollusks ( De-la-Torre et al, 2020a ), crustaceans ( Goldstein and Goodwin, 2013 ), fish ( Wang et al, 2020 ), sea turtles and marine mammals ( Meaza et al, 2021 ; Santillán et al, 2020 ). The presence of MPs along the terrestrial and marine food chains suggests that humans are exposed through the consumption of contaminated seafood and food products ( Akhbarizadeh et al, 2020 ).…”

Binational survey of personal protective equipment (PPE) pollution driven by the COVID-19 pandemic in coastal environments: Abundance, distribution, and analytical characterization

“…Depending on several factors, the release of MPs (< 5 mm) has been estimated to reach about 2230 MPs per mask, and more than 2.43 × 10 9 PNPs (<1 µm) per mask ( Ma et al, 2021 ). These plastic particles are widely known for their ubiquity in the environment, including water bodies, soil, sediment, atmosphere, and cryosphere ( Dobaradaran et al, 2018 , Akhbarizadeh et al, 2021b , Bergmann et al, 2019 , Dioses-Salinas et al, 2020 , Torres and De-la-Torre, 2021 ), organisms from multiple taxa ( Villagran et al, 2020 , Hall et al, 2015 , Meaza et al, 2021 , Ory et al, 2018 ), mostly due to accidental ingestion, and foods and consumer goods ( De-la-Torre, 2020 , Barboza et al, 2018 , Akhbarizadeh et al, 2020 , Li et al, 2015 ). The ecotoxicological effects of MPs/PNPs have been demonstrated in multiple studies, and are generally associated with oxidative stress, cytotoxicity, neurotoxicity, behavioral changes, among other sublethal effects during the early stages of the development of model organisms ( Webb et al, 2020 , Kim et al, 2021 , Prokić et al, 2019 ).…”

Baseline data of the presence of meso and microplastics in digestive tract of a commercially important teleost fish from the Rio de la Plata Estuary System (Southwest Atlantic Ocean)

“…Blue PD, particularly microplastics, dominated microplastics found in many species, from freshwater fishes to marine megafauna (e.g. Ory et al 2017;Meaza et al 2020;Zantis et al 2020); but for the same species Arias et al (2019) observed that predominant colors were transparent and red. It was also observed that there was a difference in color distribution depending on locations (Markic et al 2018), which could explain differences found between both areas.…”