Assessment of additives used in plastic in seabirds

Liver samples from 10 herring gulls (Larus argentatus) were investigated for a broad range of chemicals used as additives in plastic products. The aim of this study was to clarify if the ingestion of plastic by seabirds would cause additives to leach out and get taken up by the organism, posing a potential harm. After chemical trace analyses of the liver samples, considerable concentrations of S/MCCPs and dechloranes were detected. Of the other additive classes analysed for, only sporadic detections were observed. In general, the results from chemical analysis of additives used in plastic do not indicate a relationship between gastric contents (plastic occurrence in the stomach) and additive concentration in the liver, in respect to the chemical compounds investigated here.