Impacts of microplastic fibres on the marine mussel, Mytilus galloprovinciallis.

Tumble dryer lint has been employed as a surrogate for synthetic and processed (microplastic) fibres discharged to the environment from laundering activities and exposed to marine mussels (Mytilus galloprovinciallis) in controlled experiments for a period of 7 d. A range of biological responses at different levels of organisation were subsequently determined, with copper employed concurrently as a positive control. Physiological changes were assessed from measurements of clearance rate, histopathological effects were evaluated from abnormalities in (or injuries to) gill and digestive gland tissues, and genetic damage was determined by measuring DNA strand breaks using the comet assay.