Fiberglass has been observe in the food for thought Ernst Boris Chain for the first fourth dimension . A “ distressing level ” of the contrived material was recently detect in oyster and mussels along the south coast of the UK , although the researchers say it ’s likely to be a globose issue .

Scientists at the Universities of Brighton and Portsmouth collected oysters and mussels from an fighting boatyard in Chichester Harbor , a pop sailing location in South England .

Within their comestible flaccid tissues , they detected an teemingness of fiberglass , aka glass - reinforce plastic ( GRP ) . The squad ’s experiments observe up to 11,220 fiberglass particle per kilogram inoystersand 2,740 particle per kilogram in mussels .

" Our determination show a distressing level of GRP contamination in marine aliveness . This work is the first of its kind to document such extensive contamination in natural pelecypod population . It ’s a stern admonisher of the secret dangers in our environment , ” Dr Corina Ciocan , principal reader in nautical biological science from the University of Brighton , said in astatement .

Fiberglass is a reinforce credit card material that ’s made of extremely fine fibers of chicken feed implant into a resinous matrix . Revered for its tough and lightweight properties , it ’s been wide used in boat manufacturing since the 1960s .

The fresh study shows that the material can release petite glass particles into the beleaguer environment when boats are crush , dismantle , or reanimate . Levels of GRP contamination were especially mellow during winter , a season when many sailing enthusiasts take advantage of the poor atmospheric condition to work on their boats .

Once in the water , the mote are then “ sucked up ” by filter - feeding lamellibranch , include oysters and mussels . Their method acting of eat up means that filter - feeding lamellibranch consumeall kinds of microparticle contamination , include infective pathogen and plastics .

The researcher believe it ’s possible that GRP contamination negatively impacts the health of the shellfish and might even kill them . They ’re now keen to investigate whether the fiberglass microparticles can be transferred up the food chain and impact human health .

" It ’s a global issue , particularly for island nations with limited landfill space . sweat are being made to find viable disposal solution , but more take to be done to forbid at - ocean dumping and onshore burning , ” explain Professor Fay Couceiro from the University of Portsmouth .

" We ’re just starting to empathise the extent of fibreglass contamination , ” she notice .

The new study is published in theJournal of Hazardous Materials .