People who eat seafood may be eating pieces of plastic. The small pieces of plastic are called microplastics. They are tiny pieces of plastic from the waste and that are in the seas and . They are usually less than a millimeter . They are becoming more and more common in seafood such as oysters and mussels as well as other of shellfish. Scientists say there are more than five trillion pieces of microplastic in our oceans. More and more are being added day. Professor Richard Thompson, a marine at Exeter University, said: "Hundreds of marine organisms encounter plastic at the sea surface or in the …and many of those encounters are harmful if not ."
Researchers from the University of Ghent in Belgium conducted a study into microplastics and marine . They believe people eat up to 11,000 pieces of plastic in their each year. The researchers said that only around 60 of these pieces stay in our and the rest will disappear down the . Sixty pieces of microplastic may not seem a but it will build up over time. They could eventually be for our health. Things are to get worse. The researchers added that by the of the century, seafood eaters could consume as many as 780,000 pieces of plastic a year. That is likely to cause health problems. Scientists say we need to recycle more and find to plastic..
