Study on the occurrence of microplastics from marine pollution to the human food chain (in SiRiMaP Project)

Plastics enter the marine food chain when they degrade producing microplastics. Plastic debris has an adverse impact on Zooplankton at the bottom of the food chain, that is eaten by different fish. Fish ingest microplastics due to their continuous uptake of water. Microplastics get into the next level of the chain when other animals eat contaminated fish and move up to the top of the food chain posing a serious issue to humans at the end of the food chain. To assess the risk of transfer of microplastics along the marine food chain microplastics in benthonic and pelagic Tyrrhenian and Adriatic seafood will be researched. Fsh species will be studied as markers to evaluate the potential impact of microplastics on the marine ecosystem and human food safety (SiRIMaP-PON project,2019-2021-4.6 action).