Fish are being increasingly exposed to endocrine disrupters

(Image: Pixabay CC0) - Microplastics, owing to their chemical properties, can carry micropollutants into a fish's digestive system where they are subsequently released through the action of its gastric and intestinal fluids. scientists, working in association with other research institutes, have studied this process by looking specifically at progesterone - often pointed to as an endocrine disrupter. When fish ingest microplastics, they often also ingest progesterone. This compound is subsequently released into the digestive tract through chemical reactions with the fish's digestive fluids. That's the key finding of a study carried out jointly by scientists from EPFL, the Swiss Federal Institute of Aquatic Science and Technology (Eawag), Peking University in Beijing, and Oklahoma State University, and appearing in Environmental Science: Processes & Impacts. "Our study shows that microplastics are an additional vector for exposing fish to micropollutants like progesterone, a steroid hormone that can be found in the environment," says Florian Breider, the head of EPFL's Central Environmental Laboratory and a co-author of the study. "These microplastics act like sponges and serve as a vector - they readily absorb hydrophobic micropollutants in water, since the pollutants' molecules would rather attach to the plastic," says Breider.