Screening Of Microplastics Contaminants On Cockles And Mussels’ Landings At West Coast Peninsular Malaysia Using Microscopy, FTIR And PCA Analysis
Currently, the role of plastics in daily life is significant as usage of wrappers and food packaging are extensively used prior to food and packages deliveries. This triggered the disposal of the plastic waste therefore posing environmental threats especially when the plastics enter the food web and...
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| Summary: | Currently, the role of plastics in daily life is significant as usage of wrappers and food packaging are extensively used prior to food and packages deliveries. This triggered the disposal of the plastic waste therefore posing environmental threats especially when the plastics enter the food web and cause food toxicity. Degraded plastics that are less than five millimetres are called microplastics. Therefore, within this size range, filter feeders such as cockles and mussels are likely to ingest microplastics that sunk at the ocean’s floor unintentionally. Hence, the samples of cockles, mussels and seawater samples were collected at different anthropogenic sites in Tanjong Karang, Selangor and Sebatu, Melaka, Malaysia to screen potential microplastics contaminant on the shellfish landings. Observation of microplastics were performed using light microscope as well as fluorescence microscope (magnification: 40x) to confirm the presence of microplastics in the biota. The observations under both microscopes showed the potential microplastics presence in the tissues of cockles and mussels with characteristics of thin, red, elongated filaments, irregular fragments and spheruloid-shaped pellets. Types of possible polymer microplastics were identified using FTIR analysis (4 cm-1 resolution) includes polypropylene, polystyrene and polyethylene. The distribution of microplastics were spatially dependent with principal component analysis (PCA) explaining that 96% of total variation was detected on both shellfish samples from different strategic sites, where all the samples were significantly different (ρ< 0.05). Information generated in this study are useful as food safety management measures as well as for environmental monitoring health measures. |
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