From pollution to plate – how plastic impacts health
Dr Matt Dicken, head of research at KZN Sharks Board commenting on the gravity of the plastic problem.
MORE than three weeks have passed since beach clean-up operations began at Blue Lagoon Beach when masses of plastic pollution washed up after the KZN floods. NPO’s The Litterboom Project and Adopt-a-River recorded more than 2.5 tons of plastic in the first two days of the clean-up at Blue Lagoon Beach on April 13 and 14.
Berea Mail returned to the beach on Friday, April 29 to see how much work is yet to be done. While the bulk of the debris has been reduced significantly, there are still plenty of plastic remnants on the beach. Dr Matt Dicken, head of research at KZN Sharks Board was among the volunteers adding to ongoing clean-up efforts on Friday.
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Commenting on the gravity of the waste, Dicken said plastic pollution has a ripple effect, adversely impacting marine life, tourism and human health.”About 14 million tons of plastic is deposited into our oceans annually. It’s the most pervasive form of pollution. Plastic is found along every shoreline of every continent in the world,” he said.
Plastic pollution doesn’t only pose a threat to marine life, but also to people consuming seafood.
“Toxic contaminants, through the process of bio-accumulation, can concentrate up the food chain to the point where people can become ill after eating fish. It can affect your endocrine system, immune system, reproductive system and your organs,” said Dicken.
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Plastic poses a myriad threats in its various forms. “A long string of plastic can entangle seabirds, fish or turtles, causing them to drown or suffocate. It could entangle the animal to the point that it can’t open its mouth and it starves. Smaller plastic pieces can be ingested, particularly by turtles, causing them to die. We’ve seen cases where a mother bird feeds small pieces of plastic to her young, thinking its fish. This is not only happening in urban spaces – we are seeing these effects in the Antarctic – in the most far flung reaches of the world,” he said.
Dicken said he has even found plastic party hats and other rubbish in sharks abdomens during dissections.
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