September 6, 2014 — The hundreds of thousands of plastic microbeads floating in the Great Lakes may pose more of a problem to fish than being mistaken for eggs. Toxins such as PCBs can stick to the plastics and be ingested by the fish, which could cause a hormonal change in a male fish, causing it to produce eggs.
These toxins are considered endocrine disruptors and the endocrine system regulates hormones in all animals.
The problem is there isn’t enough research to see if this mutation stops with the fish or can carry over into other animals, said Dr. Lorena Rios, assistant professor of chemistry at University of Wisconsin-Superior, who studied the amount of plastic fibers in fish stomachs in the lakes last year.
“We don’t have enough samples to know how long it may take to transfer compounds to other animals; it could stop in the endocrine system or go with us,” Dr. Rios said. “ There are more questions than answers at this point.”
What Dr. Rios’ research did find is evidence that fish have been consuming the plastics.
In a combined sample of roughly 260 yellow perch stomachs in Lake Erie, 33 were found with plastic fibers in their stomachs, or 12 percent, according to her research, which sampled Lake Michigan, Huron and Superior as well. Lake Erie had the largest number of fish with plastic in their stomachs.
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