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British researchers have discovered that microplastics – pieces of plastic less than 5 millimeters – remain in the bodies of mosquitoes and other aquatic insects, even after they become flying adults.
The results show that plastic pollution in our oceans is being transported through the air and raising concerns about the contamination of birds and other creatures that eat insects.
The team from the University of Reading in England and Queen's University in Belfast, Northern Ireland, have inserted two tiny pieces of polystyrene weighing a little more than one. one gram per cubic centimeter in young mosquitoes and observed insects throughout their life cycle.
They found that the particles did not disappear from the mosquito systems after the insects moved between life stages and started flying, and were present inside fully formed insects.
"Transfer of microplastics to adults represents a potential airway to contamination of new environments," the authors write in the study.
Plastic can get entangled or ingested by fish, birds and marine mammals and can damage marine ecosystems such as coral reefs.
"This worrying study raises real concerns about the prevalence of plastic pollution: it is really present everywhere, not just in the marine environment," said Emma Priestland, an activist with the charity Friends of the Earth.
"Knowing that plastic can be transferred from the larval stage to the adult mosquito, which is then used as food for a multitude of larger animals, underscores the urgency with which we must dramatically reduce our consumption of plastic," he added. Priestland.
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