How to find the microplastics in your seafood
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 21 ต.ค. 2019
- Tiny bits of plastic waste have found their way to the farthest corners of the planet - from the deepest ocean trenches to the Arctic Circle. But, pervasive plastic pollution also hits much closer to home: in the water we drink and the food we eat. In this episode of “Trial & Error,” we actually isolate some of the plastics lurking in popular seafood, and take some guesses as to where they may have come from.
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Microfibers, used to make things like yoga pants, are the ocean’s tiniest problem. Watch Vox.com’s video here: • Why these plankton are...
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Do you think this research might change your eating habits?
Verge Science yes it does...
no. i'm still curious about how it's in the air.
Shrimps are mostly cleaners of the ocean, maybe that’s why they contain lots of microplasctics. What about other sea creatures like lobsters, crabs and fishes, do they also contain large amounts of micro plastics?
Question. Does these nano/micro plastics get into the muscles of shrimp/fish, the parts where we actually eat?
I hope so. All those dead non-human animals ... I don't think whe should be eating them in 2019.
Archeologist in millions of years will find our ancient rock layer as a layer of plastic.
Just for the fun of it most plastic is petroleum based meaning in millions of years we'll inadvertainly replinish all the oil we've used over the past 500+ years with an oceans worth extra to boot... food for thought have good weekend
Rick Sanchez137A oh he’ll not global warming arises
Even the humans are made of plastic
I like your optimism!
Bold of you to assume we'll be here in a million years
What's your favourite food?
Kids living in 2077: Microplastic
Poor. I prefer italian microplastic. The weather just season their microplastic very well. You cannot grow italian microplastic anywhere!
@@landewell6862 yes because of the bacteria culture that only grows on micro plastics in Italy and Canada and it's a hybrid of the 2 that offers such a pristine unprecedented taste and texture so elegant for my taste buds
*Kids dying in 2077
Aaron M Soylent Green
Lmao! ahahahhhahha
Vegetable full of pesticides
Meat creates super bugs
Fish contains micro plastic
What are you expecting me to eat then
Organic vegetables or grow your own
1) buy your own land
2) raise your own animal
3) grow your own fruits and vegetables
Done and done
Water them with your nano plastic filled drinking water.
@@bgeery it's a better option, if you want the best solution, try lookup for natural farming and permaculture, there are so many sustainable ways to get your food, most people are just not ready
Potatoes
I work in a harbor, when it rains and floods there's so much plastic that gets washed in. All of that plastic breaks down into small pellets from sunlight, wash from ships, and time. I have to clean out my seawater strainers to cool my engines. Those pellets then break down even more. The scary thing is that some parts of the ocean don't seem like they have plastic pollution but there is you just can't see it. Even if you do care about the environment, you're still polluting the water supply by washing your synthetic clothes in a washing machine, lint flying out of the dryer vent into the air, or going #2 after processing seafood or water. That water is processed and served to us, animals, and plants.
i was looking at another video about this and they do make filters for the washing machines. they found polyester fibers at the bottom of the marinas trench - polyester was invented back in 1941 so for over 80 years it has been flowing from those washing machines and like the old saying goes the ocean is down stream from everywhere.
As someone who has never littered, I’m angered.
And yet more and more manufacturers use plastic. I remember the time when nutella and other peanut butter were using glass containers. Last week i went to the grocery shop to find out that only one brand uses glass containers
It's cheaper and in fact, the world is running out of sand to produce glass.
@@pearsonsmith6063 do you know what plastic is made of? Petroleum or oil. Processed and all that until it results I the type of plastic you need.
Jack Shen yep, and that’ll be the one that I buy lol Shopping can be painful, but I avoid plastic as much as I can.
Jack Shen oh and Snapple, that company can fuck right off. Can’t imagine in today’s day and age of plastic clogging up our ecosystem they would now switch to plastic bottles. Makes me think very low of the company as a whole.
Pearson Smith glass is infinitely recyclable. Not every type of glass can be recycled, but the jars you buy in the store for food, can be recycled indefinitely.
“When the last tree has been cut down, the last fish caught, the last river poisoned, only then will we realize that one cannot eat money.”
― Cree Indian Prophecy
The rich can always find something to eat
I spent my summer doing research on microplastics in seafood in the gulf in FL. Feel free to ask any questions about this, this is my field of study in University. Our team focused on shrimp, oysters and predator fish in our study.
Edit: I'll answer for as long as possible but I may have to wait to respond to some of you tonight after my classes are over. Love the questions so far!
What organic things do micro plastics outnumber now?
@@preapocalypse2246 I can't talk on big picture as much as individuals, but the amount of plastic in oceans is getting very close to outnumbered fish by weight. We use plastic for EVERYTHING and it's not hard to imagine that plastic outnumbers a great deal of organic organisms at this point.
For example think of all the clothes you own, a great deal of those have polyester or nylon, which are plastics. So count up your non-cotton clothes, all your appliances, shoes, furniture etc and you're already outnumbering your whole neighborhood most likely. The issue comes from the fact the plastic is so essential to our lives, but we need to be more aware of where those products end up when we are finished with them. Washing your clothes in a washing machine for instance will release fibers from the clothes into the ocean or other waterways.
@@TrekkieBrie with how little we know about the total species and ocean in general would you say the problem is accelerating and worse than we can even comprehend?
Can you take dna from miscro plastic and find its source?
@@Dfthg-bz3hp I would absolutely say that. Our team did something not many other teams have done (even this researcher) which is to digest the ENTIRE organism. In the video they mentioned the digestive tract, our team digested the entire shrimp. What our team did that no one else has done was digested the muscle tissue of predator fish like tuna, rather than their digestive tract, since we don't eat that. What we found was that the fish had detectable microplastics in their muscles on par with what we found in organisms like oysters which we eat whole. These studies focus on foods we eat and don't focus as much on organisms like jellies, zooplankton, or large marine mammals. So it is almost certain that the problem is worse than it appears.
50s - this plastic containers will be the norm of the future world.
Now- there's plastic everywhere..
NorthObsidianG use glass instead
@@GabrielaLopez-gy1dz Alternate universe - Micro glass pollution everywhere.
Human must adapt and evolve to digest micro plastic
@@3p3p ha ha ..actually I agree with h
Thats boomer gen for you.
Like you said in the video, I'd be interested to see if there was any in the flesh that people eat.
crawfonk even if we did, we are gonna poop it straight out! 😅 so I don’t see a problem here!
@@naveendotcom if in the animal that ingested it, it somehow got to its flesh that we then eat, then it could probably get into our flesh if we ingested that meat.
@@naveendotcom If it's small enough, it could get into our bloodstream through the intestines. The bits are really small too, so they're broken down better by hydrochlorid acid in our stomach as well, depending on the plastic of course. Then, those products end up in our bloodstream.
@@naveendotcom MPs sorb chemicals and pollutants present in the water. MPs become vectors for harmful chemicals. That is indeed a problem
@@naveendotcom predictable.
We're already eating like 5 grams plastic a week. That's a credit card.
moinmoin 💀💀💀💀😂😂😅
Do you have the reference for this?
@@patrickjdarrow yes, it's pulled straight out of his ass
Cronchy
@@HeatherBrown-gw7tn tyvm
She didn’t even eat the prawns at 1:24, the top of the plate looks like the foods been scraped off lol
Right where it BELONGS lmfao
Maybe she slid them right into her mouth?
@@nicbtw6062 seafood is good
pretty sure they put it on another plate for the sake of the video? she isnt gonna shoot a shot of shrimp and then wait the while of eating it to take the next shot.
Oh we are so so good in observations all corners! That what I see too .
What are the healt hazards of microplastics, do they enter in to our circulation or, just get defecated out?
Most plastic products eject estrogen-like chemicals. For men that's extra bad news.
We don't clearly know yet
Plastic is inert, there are no effects. It's in the fucking food we eat so if there were any adverse effect we would have know already. idk the world is now obsessed with microplastics nowadays.
@@TheRealWarrior0 estrogenic plastics are estrogen-like. part of their surface resembles estrogen. They can float around the body and interact with estrogen receptors. Basically, they can cause hormone imbalance.
The problem with micro plastics is the colossal surface area. Imagine a square of sheet plastic measuring 1m x 1m. It has surface area of 2m² which represents a certain level of chemical release.
Take that square and shred it into particles 1mm².
Now recalculate the surface area and chemical release. Subtle hint, it's huge.
@@lepombo7057 I gave comment on the morphology of estrogen-like molecules that can interfere with body chemistry. You are free to talk about something else.
Assuming a sheet thickness of 1mm:
We start with surface area of 2m². Now dice into 1mm cubes which adds 2m². So, we have doubled the surface area theoretically. But in practice, erosion makes the surface rough with pits, cuts, tears, scrapes, etc. Possibly, this will double the surface again. So, if a sheet of plastic disintegrates on the beach, the chemical release is multiplied at least 4x. Probably much more.
Finally, let's be generous and give 10 years to disintegrate. During that time, the quantity of plastic waste has multiplied. Therefore, contamination does not rise, fall, end. It constantly rises!
"How to find the microplastics in your seafood"
Step 1 - Have a laboratory...
1:40. There was a fly on one of the shrimps near the left side of the screen, surprised that they don't keep glass covers over the shrimp before bagging them and handing it out.
Iridium from an asteroid marks the end of the dinosaurs, plastic will mark the end of us in the geological record...
iridium gave us Spark Plugs and Plastics got us Dixie cups.
People like this who help young bright minded people study are amazing, they give me a little hope in the American school system.
I don't think we can ever reverse this kind of damage!
Life, uh, finds a way.
@@z3dar hope is all we have..
Just like we can't reverse radionuclide contamination. Nothing new.
Single use plastics must be banned. It's such a menace.
Scarlet Dcruz but it would be a menace to replace too
@@wonhoscake1214 Replace how? I've seen cookie packets with an outer plastic wrapping and inner wrapping too. At least they could replace the inner wrapping with wax paper or something bio degradable. That right there removes tonnes of non recyclable plastic a year.
I think we need to better educate people as to why it is a problem and why they should choose better alternative. You want more and more government regulation? I think government messes up almost everything they get involved with.
@@wendyparsons2980 maybe your government. Where I live in, the government has banned plastic carry bags and disposable cups and is strictly enforcing it. It's a good start.
Government is nothing more than the reflection of the people you elect. Elect good people who has good intentions and you'll be fine.
condoms?
Some time ago I dreamed of eating compact discs. Woke up feeling a bit unsettled and wanting to vomit.
Guess dreams do come true, in a way.
You picked the best interviewee!
Debra sounds like an amazing person to be around - smart, funny, and invested to helping humanity.
The world needs more Debras. =]
Exactly
I was a chef in a prestigious school in Asia, one of the parents is a marine biology professor/lecturer, he said he tries not to eat any seafood, he told me there is evidence that shows that microplastics are actually damaging humans & fetal growth, and it will be generations until we can solve the microplastic issue. He said it in a disparaging way, it felt as if he had given up thinking about solving it as it seems as if he was saying the damage is already extremely high. But. I'm not an expert, I'm only surmising based on an hour conversation with 1 professor, I personally hope he's wrong, but I don't see why he would be.
The way she explained this experiment is how all science should be conveyed to the public! So clear and consise!!!
I just found this youtube channel and it's pure gold!!
Possible explanation for the rise in intestinal and stomach problems in humans along with other contaminates.
Microplastics cant do shit to our body
Machofriz because you said so? I recall seeing commercials before about how lead was safe. Yeah, everything is perfectly well and good while the demons that profit from destruction can still thrive.
I think you are on to something. The immune system is very important for proper functioning of the gut, and there is published evidence that microplastics can cause immune problems. Example of one paper:
www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/31158627
If the gut isn't working well, the body is at risk for many other illnesses.
Drink plum juice, that clears out the gut
I just died from the first pun, I guess I didn’t sea that coming
Please....I'm only human....😫
Very nice effort and very informative. Thank you!
Excellent video. The only thing I would recommend is incorporating a bit about which foods are the greatest sources of microplastics in our diet, and how that compares with how much we inhale and drink.
You can't avoid microplastics, even you are breathing, you inhaled them. 5:52
How terrifying today's world
Tunas Mekar Pasar Basah ... nano size plastic/ petroleum? Or where the plastic come from ?
In my country, the Netherlands, we all have a seperate container for plastic/metal waste. The metal is magneticly seperated later.
Now if we all just would have the discipline to put everything plastic in that container, a lot would be won.
I'm sure there are more countries with simular containers.
Where I live we are supposed to separate paper/cardboard, plastic, metal, compost, batteries, light bulbs, and other things in different categories. But most people just don't bother, and it's often impossible to enforce these rules.
@@NLStitch so what
@@harshhgupta7209 yeah man but nobody in India listens.
Why are there 95 dislikes on this video? It’s informative. It clearly demonstrates the issue to be studied, how they studied it, and discusses potential risks and the need for more studies. Are these 95 people bots? I seriously don’t think a human would dislike it. The information is clear and well-thought out and presented.
2:37 meme moment right there 🤣
People really gotta start taking care of the environment.
Humans: *fish for shrimp* Ha! You just got bamboozled, okay time to eat
Shrimp:
Microplastics: no, you got bamboozled
5:20 "protoscampi"... Love it
Micro? When i worked as a chef i use to clean squid for calamari I've found nickel size pieces of plastic and bits of metal i eat nothing from the ocean
Neither do I. Not for over 32 years now. We don't need it. Leave the oceans alone and they have an opportunity to regenerate. 46% of plastic in our oceans is fishing nets and equipment.
Remember to still eat fish oils to get omega-3. Mediterranean diet, which includes a lot of fish etc, has been shown to be among the healthiest on the planet.
...Also the plastics are in other animals than marine-ones as well, although in lower quantities. Probably in plants too. And water ofc.
You can find omega-3 on seeds
@@sofiae7333 True, forgot about that!
Eat beef, pork, and chicken instead if you are that scared.
If you are really scared and addicted to seafood at the same time, raise your own seafood in a tank with distilled water made from steam then put synthetic sea salt from minerals extracted from the Himalayas or place like that. It's easy.
Hope you realize that one third to seventeen percent of fish caught worldwide are used to feed farm animals.
@@Leo-zk9rd The video says even seafood harvested from farms in pristine areas got micro plastic. So, tank is the answer. Sea salt has micro plastic too, so you need yo mix your own minerals.
Don't eat much beef
A comment said how much microplastic is in a human body.
I laughed because i remmembered
*The Kardashians*
why dont you just reply to that comment?
Plastic equal to silicon or other chemistry at the end is petroleum may be ???
Wow, I love this channel... Thanks for this very interesting video, definitively food for thought!
Why is this sponsored by Lexus lol?
Yeah that's interesting. They completely forgot to mention rubber dust is also microplastics. Tires are made of rubber and tires do worn out on the road. What a coincidence.
Hey Emilio! From time to time, we have sponsors on our channel to help us continue to create the content that we put out. Our sponsors do not control any of the content we create. A full rundown of our editorial guidelines can be found in our ethics statement here: www.theverge.com/ethics-statement
Thanks for watching! - Cory
Verge Science 👍🏻
fernando alonso
Muney
"MOM! Why my Sushi is tasting like toothbrush bristles?!"
"There's other stuff in there too... bits of sand and who knows what else." WHO KNOWS?!?! YOU SHOULD! you're at a lab literally analyzing its contents!!
Thank you for this information this is actually my topic on my chemistry major
Parents: don't play with your food
Me:
Imagine that a piece of a used condoms. Yikes!
Yum
Latex not plastic
parodiesist latex is a type of plastic
love made of plastic too. - Mariya Takeuchi
@@KemalYusup Dance to the plastic beat
Damn, If someone found a micro plastic that is a million years old...
....
........huh?
love this example of fluorescent microscopy!
Thanks for giving me another source for my science fair project. So hard to find sources that simply stare the quantities of microplastics and not what they cause ( not that this aspect isn’t important, It’s just not the focus of my project).
2:24 what is in the bottle marked "Snoop"? What happens if you drop that bottle like it's hot?
www.swagelok.com/en/product/Leak-Detectors-Lubricants-Sealants/Snoop-Liquid-Leak-Detector
@@laurendoe168 "Real Cool Snoop" Nice!
boycott plastic clothing materials like polyester, acrylic, and nylon!
Fiona Oh i saw a documentary about plastic shoes! The disappointment was those dressing shoes always looks as new as when you buy it .
I love this woman's voice. It's so calming.
Very interesting story. Thank you very much indeed!
1:20
Gets a plate of food onto the dinner table.
*throws it out instead*
Danny Mancheno you can see they scoop it out lol
Plastics aren't on Mars... Yet...
Wait, we have rovers there...
Recently I saw a video about why plastic was made at the first time: it was because people used too many paper bag which was consume so many trees. When plastic founded, it did reduce tree logging. And the founder was reminding people at that time to use one plastic many times as they can. But plastic started to also became a problem when people use it just for one time instead of many times. And guess what? People start to campaign (again) to use paper bag which more dangerous than plastic bag (I know the detail information why paper bag is more dangerous than plastic bag, but can't explain the detail here). We can't let that same cycle happen again, right?
So, for the solution, we should use "anything" we already have: plastic or paper bag or fabric bag more than one time. Back to use only paper bag again isn't the solution. Let's save our earth now!
y'know its kinda ironic that in the past. plastic was known to be a miracle product cuz it was durable and cheap but now its come back to haunt us.
Welp. That's it for me. Good night, everyone!
We need is A Plastic Alternative
May I ask what specific dye is used to magnify microplastics?
This need more attention 😟
"Possibly in our food"
Or you could see it as killing thousands of species🤷♀️
Just throe the whole earth away.
cut most of americas and europe, because that's where plastic is produced and all toxic waters and metal buried under every sea bed.this is also where all the nuclear stuff are made. without these two parts of the world. the planet would catch a solid break.
Hemp bioplastics and pasture raised lifestocks would be a good start.
1:25 that goddamn fly
I wonder what the Mukbang raw seafood community’ gotta say about this
ask the BBQ mukbangz what they think, because all those pigs are eating plastic too.
Finally I have a reason why I rarely do laundry
@Verge Science may i know the details about the dye you used in identifying plastics! Where can i know the details?!
I met Debra at Lamont-Doherty a few years ago, my dad was argueing with her for a part of some fish lmao. My dad's the main author for the microplastics paper.
We need to control the complete life of plastic from inception thru to recycling and make it a closed loop system .
It will take decades to completely remove it from our environment🤮
I think I'm turning Barbie.
Meal by meal.
I don't want to be Barbie!
Plastic is so fantastic....
Can you please tell me which dye you use to stain plastics? Thanks in advance.
There are also microplastics in our toothpaste. For some bizarre reason, toothpaste makers decided it would be a good idea to include little blue plastic specks to our toothpaste which we've been ingesting or otherwise have been getting trapped between our gums.
Just imagine the beautiful world of tomorrow in which our children and grandchildren will be living...
Worthy 7:19 minutes
is there any study on the correlation between microplastic and cancer?
Which dye did you use ?
When was microplastic discovered in the ocean?
Lmao what
The earliest detections were studies conducted at the beginning of this century. Karen Lavender Law and Richard Thompson from Woods Hole coined the term "microplastics" in a study published in Science in 2004. They, along with others whom I consider rock-star scientists, pioneered the research in this field.
D. L. Mag thanks for the information
The guts of the shrimp is the best what is this woman talking about
Debra Magadini said she helps highschool students with performing this experiment, is there any way to contact her, or does she do this for students on a large scale as in a class at a time. This could be a very interesting topic for an upcoming project I have.
what is the special dye that you used for observing microplastics?
Why are synthetic clothes still allowed again?
Because natural clothes don't repel water or stop bullets
Its also gives more warmth in winter maybe
@@qqtf5799 I'm not that into guns to debate what you've written. I just said it as an example to Kevlar which is an important synthetic fiber used to build -bullet proof- shard resistant vests
It's easier, cheaper, and faster to make than growing cotton and harvesting silk from worms.
Pearson Smith then we need to invest further in hemp technologies. Because if by “cheaper” it means sacrificing the integrity of our entire ecosystem, clearly it isn’t worth it.
- Whimsical Music? ✔️Check
- Topic is about how to avoid existentially-threatening pollutants caused by rampant capitalism? ✔️ Check
😎!Yep, it's Dystopia Time!😎
I live right by that observatory. I was always curious what goes on there.
any links to the experiments talked about in this video? I conduct very similar experiments, but on wastewater effluent like laundry waste and greywater.
Who's cooking shrimp tonight?
6:34 “we dump millions of tons of plastic in the ocean” hold up.. wdym WE 😂😭😓
Somewhere right now a turtle is choking on a straw you used in 2014.
not attacking but i feel this is one of the main faulty approaches we have towards pollution, we all contribute to it
What's the name of the dye that you use for the plastic to glow in the UV light?
Can you tell me which dye u are using
presented by Lexus - destroying the planet since 1933
This is very worrisome. I think international bodies like the UN should be given more powers to enforce environmental treaties on the matter
Very interesting.
What is the "special dye" used please ?
Nnnnnooooooooo0! Not beer 😭
When we eat this... we shit it out again right? What’s the problem in with ingestion then?
Inhalation seems more problematic obviously...
Has anyone talked about it yet in the comments section?
Small pieces stay in the bloodstream
if it is small enough it can get in our bloodstream and if it's big enough our stomach can't digest it. This is why plastic in the ocean is such a big deal. Animals eat it and they can't digest it so it all just stays in their stomach and they die.
Hi, what is the special dye that makes the plastic glow?
Clicks on video
00:30 in
Me: alright I'm going head out
We should at the very least ban plastic bags, and try to minimize plastic use in our daily life
So ur telling plastic benders are the new meta in Avatar 2019
which dye you used nile?
Living without plastics is not hard at all. Minor tweaks to reusables like cloth and glass are easy to make.