Hard at work: Volunteers collecting litter during a beach clean-up campaign organised in conjunction with Earth Day in George Town. — Reuters
PETALING JAYA: Microplastics have been found in aquatic environments across the country, which could lead to a fish shortage, or even worse, entire marine populations dying out, says the Fisheries Department.
Its director-general Datuk Adnan Hussain said a study by the Fisheries Research Institute, which began in 2019, showed the presence of common plastics such as rayon, polyethylene and polypropylene.
“These are widely used in everyday life, especially in the clothing, food packaging and other industries.“More worrying is that chemicals used in the production of plastics such as Bisphenol A and phthalates can be secreted and can accumulate in the environment and food sources.
“There is significant concern over their long-term effects on universal health as there have been widely reported links between these chemicals and health problems such as hormonal imbalance and reproductive problems,” he said in a statement in conjunction with Earth Day yesterday.
Adnan said continuous microplastic exposure at high concentrations on fish would affect their growth and quality in the long term.
These effects include oxidative stress, inflammation, immunotoxicity, genotoxicity, and damage to the DNA and digestive system of the fish.
The theme for Earth Day 2024 is “Planet vs Plastics”, which aims to get everyone on board one of the most pressing environmental issues of our time: plastics pollution.
A number of NGOs have also taken it upon themselves to rid their communities of plastics.
Kuala Lipis Lions club president Lily Ng and another fellow member, along with 10 student members from SMJK Chung Hwa in Pahang, joined hands to clean up the Kuala Lipis public park.
“We collected around five to six bags worth of garbage (including plastics) and will set them aside for Alam Flora to collect as they are unrecyclable,” said Ng, adding that they hold similar communal clean-up events up to three times a year.
Other Lions club branches across the country held similar clean-ups.
