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Microplastics Pollution as an Invisible Potential Threat to Food Safety and Security, Policy Challenges and the Way Forward

Technological advances, coupled with increasing demands by consumers, have led to a drastic increase in plastic production. After serving their purposes, these plastics reach our water bodies as their destination and become ingested by aquatic organisms. This ubiquitous phenomenon has exposed humans...

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Autores principales: Usman, Sunusi, Abdull Razis, Ahmad Faizal, Shaari, Khozirah, Amal, Mohammad Noor Azmai, Saad, Mohd Zamri, Mat Isa, Nurulfiza, Nazarudin, Muhammad Farhan, Zulkifli, Syaizwan Zahmir, Sutra, Jumria, Ibrahim, Musa Adamu
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2020
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7767491/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33371479
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph17249591
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author Usman, Sunusi
Abdull Razis, Ahmad Faizal
Shaari, Khozirah
Amal, Mohammad Noor Azmai
Saad, Mohd Zamri
Mat Isa, Nurulfiza
Nazarudin, Muhammad Farhan
Zulkifli, Syaizwan Zahmir
Sutra, Jumria
Ibrahim, Musa Adamu
author_facet Usman, Sunusi
Abdull Razis, Ahmad Faizal
Shaari, Khozirah
Amal, Mohammad Noor Azmai
Saad, Mohd Zamri
Mat Isa, Nurulfiza
Nazarudin, Muhammad Farhan
Zulkifli, Syaizwan Zahmir
Sutra, Jumria
Ibrahim, Musa Adamu
author_sort Usman, Sunusi
collection PubMed
description Technological advances, coupled with increasing demands by consumers, have led to a drastic increase in plastic production. After serving their purposes, these plastics reach our water bodies as their destination and become ingested by aquatic organisms. This ubiquitous phenomenon has exposed humans to microplastics mostly through the consumption of sea food. This has led the World Health Organization (WHO) to make an urgent call for the assessment of environmental pollution due to microplastics and its effect on human health. This review summarizes studies between 1999 and 2020 in relation to microplastics in aquatic ecosystems and human food products, their potential toxic effects as elicited in animal studies, and policies on their use and disposal. There is a paucity of information on the toxicity mechanisms of microplastics in animal studies, and despite their documented presence in food products, no policy has been in place so far, to monitor and regulates microplastics in commercial foods meant for human consumption. Although there are policies and regulations with respect to plastics, these are only in a few countries and in most instances are not fully implemented due to socioeconomic reasons, so they do not address the problem across the entire life cycle of plastics from production to disposal. More animal research to elucidate pathways and early biomarkers of microplastic toxicity that can easily be detected in humans is needed. This is to create awareness and influence policies that will address this neglected threat to food safety and security.
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spelling pubmed-77674912020-12-28 Microplastics Pollution as an Invisible Potential Threat to Food Safety and Security, Policy Challenges and the Way Forward Usman, Sunusi Abdull Razis, Ahmad Faizal Shaari, Khozirah Amal, Mohammad Noor Azmai Saad, Mohd Zamri Mat Isa, Nurulfiza Nazarudin, Muhammad Farhan Zulkifli, Syaizwan Zahmir Sutra, Jumria Ibrahim, Musa Adamu Int J Environ Res Public Health Review Technological advances, coupled with increasing demands by consumers, have led to a drastic increase in plastic production. After serving their purposes, these plastics reach our water bodies as their destination and become ingested by aquatic organisms. This ubiquitous phenomenon has exposed humans to microplastics mostly through the consumption of sea food. This has led the World Health Organization (WHO) to make an urgent call for the assessment of environmental pollution due to microplastics and its effect on human health. This review summarizes studies between 1999 and 2020 in relation to microplastics in aquatic ecosystems and human food products, their potential toxic effects as elicited in animal studies, and policies on their use and disposal. There is a paucity of information on the toxicity mechanisms of microplastics in animal studies, and despite their documented presence in food products, no policy has been in place so far, to monitor and regulates microplastics in commercial foods meant for human consumption. Although there are policies and regulations with respect to plastics, these are only in a few countries and in most instances are not fully implemented due to socioeconomic reasons, so they do not address the problem across the entire life cycle of plastics from production to disposal. More animal research to elucidate pathways and early biomarkers of microplastic toxicity that can easily be detected in humans is needed. This is to create awareness and influence policies that will address this neglected threat to food safety and security. MDPI 2020-12-21 2020-12 /pmc/articles/PMC7767491/ /pubmed/33371479 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph17249591 Text en © 2020 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Review
Usman, Sunusi
Abdull Razis, Ahmad Faizal
Shaari, Khozirah
Amal, Mohammad Noor Azmai
Saad, Mohd Zamri
Mat Isa, Nurulfiza
Nazarudin, Muhammad Farhan
Zulkifli, Syaizwan Zahmir
Sutra, Jumria
Ibrahim, Musa Adamu
Microplastics Pollution as an Invisible Potential Threat to Food Safety and Security, Policy Challenges and the Way Forward
title Microplastics Pollution as an Invisible Potential Threat to Food Safety and Security, Policy Challenges and the Way Forward
title_full Microplastics Pollution as an Invisible Potential Threat to Food Safety and Security, Policy Challenges and the Way Forward
title_fullStr Microplastics Pollution as an Invisible Potential Threat to Food Safety and Security, Policy Challenges and the Way Forward
title_full_unstemmed Microplastics Pollution as an Invisible Potential Threat to Food Safety and Security, Policy Challenges and the Way Forward
title_short Microplastics Pollution as an Invisible Potential Threat to Food Safety and Security, Policy Challenges and the Way Forward
title_sort microplastics pollution as an invisible potential threat to food safety and security, policy challenges and the way forward
topic Review
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7767491/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33371479
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph17249591
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