review · Emerging contaminants
Microplastic contamination affects wildlife across both terrestrial and aquatic habitats globally. Interspecies differences dictate how different organisms ingest, accumulate, and respond to these particles, influenced by variations in feeding behaviour, physiology, and ecological niches. Animal exposure leads to multiple adverse health outcomes, including physical injury, inflammatory responses, behavioural alterations, and exposure to harmful chemicals adsorbed onto the plastics. Over time, chronic exposure facilitates the bioaccumulation of these transported chemical pollutants across food webs, altering animal population dynamics and wider ecosystem processes. Because these contaminants can move through biological food chains into human food sources, understanding animal exposure is critical for evaluating broader risks to human health and guiding interdisciplinary scientific investigation.
Plastic pollution has spread throughout global ecosystems, with microplastics directly harming wildlife health and altering natural behaviours. Because these particles adsorb toxic chemicals and bioaccumulate across food webs, their presence in livestock and wild animals raises serious concerns regarding ecosystem stability and the safety of the human food chain.
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Microplastic (MP) contamination has become a pervasive global issue, affecting terrestrial and aquatic environments, and its potential health hazards are of widespread concern. This review examined the intricate relationship between animal exposure to MPs and their health effects, revealing that MP contamination affects a broad spectrum of animal species across terrestrial and aquatic habitats. Crucially, interspecies differences in ingestion, accumulation, and responses to MPs emerge as central themes arising from various factors, including feeding behavior, physiology, and ecological niches. The health implications of MP exposure are multifarious; animals may suffer physical harm, endure chemical exposure to adsorbed contaminants, provoke inflammatory responses, and undergo behavioral modifications. Chronic exposure to MPs raises concerns about their long-term health consequences, and the ability of MPs to adsorb and transport chemicals has implications for the bioaccumulation of pollutants within food webs. The ecological ramifications of MP contamination are profound, impacting animal behavior, population dynamics, and ecosystem processes. The intricate interplay between animals and MPs underscores the need for interdisciplinary research that unites fields such as biology, ecology, chemistry, and toxicology. Recognizing the relationship between animal exposure to MPs and their health effects has significant implications, particularly as the potential for MPs to enter the human food chain through animals underscores the need for research on human health risks.
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DOI: 10.1016/j.emcon.2024.100369
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