Details of plastic ingestion and fibre contamination in North Sea fishes.

This study combines published datasets with unpublished data on plastic ingestion in several North Sea fish species. The combined dataset of 4389 individuals from 15 species allows the analysis of spatial distribution and temporal variability of plastic uptake in fish. Airborne fibre contamination was observed to be the main contributor to fibres encountered in the samples.

Microplastics in freshwaters and drinking water: Critical review and assessment of data quality.

Microplastics have recently been detected in drinking water as well as in drinking water sources. This presence has triggered discussions on possible implications for human health. However, there have been questions regarding the quality of these occurrence studies since there are no standard sampling, extraction and identification methods for microplastics.

Quality Criteria for the Analysis of Microplastic in Biota Samples: A Critical Review.

Data on ingestion of microplastics by marine biota are quintessential for monitoring and risk assessment of microplastics in the environment. Current studies, however, portray a wide spread in results on the occurrence of microplastic ingestion, highlighting a lack of comparability of results, which might be attributed to a lack of standardization of methods. We critically review and evaluate recent microplastic ingestion studies in aquatic biota, propose a quality assessment method for such studies, and apply the assessment method to the reviewed studies.

Detection of low numbers of microplastics in North Sea fish using strict quality assurance criteria.

We investigated 400 individual fish of four North Sea species: Atlantic Herring, Sprat, Common Dab, and Whiting on ingestion of >20μm microplastic. Strict quality assurance criteria were followed in order to control contamination during the study. Two plastic particles were found in only 1 (a Sprat) out of 400 individuals (0.