• Email Us: [email protected]
  • Contact Us: +1 718 874 1545
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar

Medical Market Report

  • Home
  • All Reports
  • About Us
  • Contact Us

“Disturbing Level” Of Fiberglass Found In Food Chain For First Time

July 10, 2024 by Deborah Bloomfield

Fiberglass has been found in the food chain for the first time. A “disturbing level” of the artificial material was recently detected in oysters and mussels along the south coast of the UK, although the researchers say it’s likely to be a global issue. 

Advertisement

Scientists at the Universities of Brighton and Portsmouth collected oysters and mussels from an active boatyard in Chichester Harbor, a popular sailing location in South England.

Within their edible soft tissues, they detected an abundance of fiberglass, aka glass-reinforced plastic (GRP). The team’s experiments found up to 11,220 fiberglass particles per kilogram in oysters and 2,740 particles per kilogram in mussels.

“Our findings show a disturbing level of GRP contamination in marine life. This study is the first of its kind to document such extensive contamination in natural bivalve populations. It’s a stark reminder of the hidden dangers in our environment,” Dr Corina Ciocan, principal lecturer in marine biology from the University of Brighton, said in a statement.

Fiberglass is a reinforced plastic material that’s made of extremely fine fibers of glass embedded into a resinous matrix. Revered for its tough and lightweight properties, it’s been widely used in boat manufacturing since the 1960s.

The new study shows that the material can release tiny glass particles into the surrounding environment when boats are crushed, dismantled, or repaired. Levels of GRP contamination were especially high during winter, a season when many sailing enthusiasts take advantage of the poor weather to work on their boats. 

Advertisement

Once in the water, the particles are then “sucked up” by filter-feeding bivalves, including oysters and mussels. Their method of eating means that filter-feeding bivalves consume all kinds of microparticle contamination, including infectious pathogens and plastics.

The researchers believe it’s possible that GRP contamination negatively impacts the health of the shellfish and might even kill them. They’re now keen to investigate whether the fiberglass microparticles can be transferred up the food chain and impact human health.

“It’s a global issue, particularly for island nations with limited landfill space. Efforts are being made to find viable disposal solutions, but more needs to be done to prevent at-sea dumping and onshore burning,” explained Professor Fay Couceiro from the University of Portsmouth.

“We’re just starting to understand the extent of fibreglass contamination,” she noted.

Advertisement

The new study is published in the Journal of Hazardous Materials.

Deborah Bloomfield
Deborah Bloomfield

Related posts:

  1. What’s happening in venture law in 2021?
  2. Firefighters retreat as La Palma volcanic explosions intensify
  3. The World’s Largest Living Organism Is Breaking Up
  4. Huge New Titanosaur Discovered In Patagonia Had A Femur Longer Than A Human

Source Link: "Disturbing Level" Of Fiberglass Found In Food Chain For First Time

Filed Under: News

Primary Sidebar

  • In 2011, Slavc The Wolf Journeyed 1,000 Miles To Begin Verona’s First Wolf Pack In 100 Years
  • Anyone Know What These Marine “Y-Larvae” Grow Into? Because Scientists Have No Clue
  • C/2025 A6 (Lemmon) Closest Earth Approach Is Next Month – Will We See It With The Naked Eye?
  • In 2013, A Volcanic Eruption Wiped Out Life On This Remote Island. Then, Somehow, Plants Reemerged
  • 1-Year-Old Orca Takes Out A Big Fat Seal In This Award-Winning – And Extremely Badass – Photo
  • Saturn And Neptune Will Reach Their Brightest In Days – And Look For Saturn’s Temporary Beauty Spot
  • Reindeer Bring A Gift Greater Than Any Of Santa’s – Hope Of A Stable Climate
  • If Deep-Sea Pressure Can Crush A Human Body, How Do Deep-Sea Creatures Not Implode?
  • Meet Ned: The Lonely Lefty Snail Looking For Love
  • “America Will Lead The Next Giant Leap”: NASA Announces New Milestone In Hunt For Exoplanets
  • What Did Neanderthals Sound Like?
  • One Star System Could Soon Dazzle Us Twice With Nova And Supernova Explosions
  • Unethical Experiments: When Scientists Really Should Have Stopped What They Were Doing Immediately
  • The First Humans Were Hunted By Leopards And Weren’t The Apex Predators We Thought They Were
  • Earth’s Passage Through The Galaxy Might Be Written In Its Rocks
  • What Is An Einstein Cross – And Why Is The Latest One Such A Unique Find?
  • If We Found Life On Mars, What Would That Mean For The Fermi Paradox And The Great Filter?
  • The Longest Living Mammals Are Giants That Live Up To 200 Years In The Icy Arctic
  • Entirely New Virus Detected In Bat Urine, And It’s Only The 4th Of Its Kind Ever Isolated
  • The First Ever Full Asteroid History: From Its Doomed Discovery To Collecting Its Meteorites
  • Business
  • Health
  • News
  • Science
  • Technology
  • +1 718 874 1545
  • +91 78878 22626
  • [email protected]
Office Address
Prudour Pvt. Ltd. 420 Lexington Avenue Suite 300 New York City, NY 10170.

Powered by Prudour Network

Copyrights © 2025 · Medical Market Report. All Rights Reserved.

Go to mobile version