Plastic particles are found in a third of fish caught off Britain, a major study reveals today.

It found widespread contamination of cod, haddock, mackerel and shellfish by microbeads used in shower gels, toothpastes and beauty products.

Plastic fragments and residues were also detected in 83 per cent of UK-caught scampi, as well as in tuna, mullet, mussels and oysters. It is thought the fish – many of which reach the human food chain – are feeding on plastics mixed in among plankton.

Campaigners warn the microbeads are a magnet for pesticide residues and industrial chemicals that jeopardise human health. Greenpeace, which commissioned the marine research, said oceans were at risk.

'An estimated eight million tons of plastic enters our ocean every year, and whether it is in the form of microbeads or throwaway plastic packaging, the science shows us that it's a toxic time-bomb,' a spokesman added.

The Daily Mail yesterday launched a campaign calling for action on the industrial use of microbeads. They are being phased out over the next few years on a voluntary basis by cosmetic firms but the 'Ban the Beads' campaign is demanding an immediate UK embargo.

PRODUCTS TO BEWARE OF These products all contain at least one of the following plastics: polyethylene, polytetrafluoroethylene, nylon-12, polymethyl methacrylate, nylon-6, polyethylene terephthalate and nylon-66 Advertisement

Yesterday this won the support of MPs, MEPs, academics and environment campaigners, as well as leading sport and showbusiness figures. Pressure is now mounting on Theresa May to take unilateral action to outlaw microbeads while the European Commission drags its feet. Today's Greenpeace report says:

36.5 per cent of fish caught by trawler in the English Channel, including cod, haddock and mackerel, contained synthetic polymers;

83 per cent of Norway lobsters – often sold as scampi in Britain – contained microplastic debris;

40 per cent of the plastics found in North Sea and Baltic fish were polyethylenes, which are used in microbeads;

A Portuguese study found microplastics in 20 per cent of 263 commercially-caught fish;

Analysis of 121 fish caught in the Mediterranean, including tuna and swordfish, found plastic debris in 18 per cent;

A field study collecting fish in the North Pacific found 35 per cent contained plastic fragments.

Some bead-free alternatives you can buy instead

Researchers at the School of Marine Science and Engineering, Plymouth University, said the English Channel findings were most likely the result of what the fish were eating. Last week research by Australia's RMIT University and China's Hainan University showed that up to 12.5 per cent of the chemical pollutants on microbeads passed into the fish that eat them.

The pollutants range from pesticides like DDT to phthalates and fire retardants. Louise Edge of Greenpeace said: 'Once in the ocean, microplastics can both attract and leach out toxic chemicals and be consumed by marine life. In some cases, juvenile fish have even been shown to prefer plastic to their natural food source.

'The report presents evidence of microplastics appearing in seafood and while the effects on human health remain unclear, we argue that a prolonged industry-led phase out of microbeads simply isn't good enough.

Shocking statistics: Plastic particles are found in a third of fish caught off Britain

'As more and more research shows that microplastics can harm marine life and even end up on our dinner plates, a ban on microbeads is a simple way for Theresa May's Government to show that they take the effects of plastic pollution on marine life and human health seriously.'

Trillions of microbeads are being washed into the sewers and seas every year. As many as 100,000 can be flushed down the plughole after a single shower.

Manufacturers have so far responded to concerns by promising to remove the plastics from some products by 2020.

WARNING: DON'T JUST POUR THEM DOWN THE SINK You may have vowed never again to buy any products containing microbeads — but how do you get rid of the half-used bottles of shower gel or scrub already lining your bathroom shelves? Don't pour them down the sink or flush them down the lavatory. As most microbeads are too tiny to be filtered out by sewage plants — the majority are between 0.001mm and 1mm in size — they'll just flow into our rivers and seas, fuelling the crisis. Instead, campaign group Beat The Microbead recommends that you post the product back to the manufacturer, with a letter telling them why you're doing this and explaining that you won't purchase any other products from them until they've guaranteed that their products are microbead-free. A sample letter is available to download and print at beatthemicrobead.org. Alternatively, experts suggest that the safest way to get rid of the product is to tighten its lid and simply put it in the rubbish bin. Microbeads cannot be recycled, and although this does mean the product will end up in a landfill site, the microbeads are unlikely to escape into the environment where they can cause far greater damage. The most vital thing is to ensure they don't go down the drain, into our oceans — and ultimately into our food chain. Advertisement

The European Commission is also investigating whether it might recommend a ban across member states. However, MPs from all parties on the Commons environmental audit committee say the Government should go further and implement a unilateral UK ban.

MEPs believe that imposing a ban in Britain would be enough to force Brussels to take action. They point out that a ban is coming into force in the United States next year. Australia is also considering one.

Environment ministers, including George Eustace and Rory Stewart, have suggested the UK may impose a unilateral ban.

The environment department Defra said last night: 'We are absolutely committed to protecting the world's seas, oceans and marine life from pollution.

HOW TO TELL IF YOUR BRAND'S GOT BEADS IN As evidence of the dangers of microbeads grows, more and more consumers want to avoid them. And a growing number of companies that do use microbeads in their products have promised to phase them out in the coming months and years. But with a huge range of products out there, each with its own confusing list of ingredients, how do you work out whether your bathroom is environmentally-friendly or not? For many products, there is a simple solution. Campaign group Beat The Microbead has compiled detailed lists of which scrubs, foams and cleansers contain the plastic pests — and which are free of them. They have separate lists for a host of European countries, and break down the results into four distinct categories: those with microbeads; those containing them but whose manufacturers have agreed to stop using them in future; those with no microbeads; and those with no plastic content of any kind. You can search its extensive lists at beatthemicrobead.org, or download the free app, Beat The Microbead, which lets you scan the barcode of any product to see whether it's on the list. The campaign group also promotes the use of a green circular label on products certified 100 per cent free of plastics. In the UK, these manufacturers include Weleda and Neal's Yard Remedies. Advertisement

'Many leading manufacturers have already taken voluntary steps to remove microbeads from cosmetics, beauty products and toothpastes. We will now consider what further action is appropriate.'

The Cosmetic, Toiletry & Perfumery Association argues voluntary measures are more effective than legislation. However, critics say the industry's promises are riddled with loopholes.

Companies are taking the beads out of exfoliants and scrubs by 2020, but there is no industry commitment to take them out of all other products like shaving gels, toothpaste and deodorants.

How everyone's backing Mail campaign

Support for Mail campaign has flooded in from across political spectrum

Voices also heard from showbusiness and environmental campaigners

A flurry of leading MPs have spoken out to support 'ban the beads'

Leading figures from a range of fields yesterday threw their weight behind the Mail's campaign to ban the beads.

Support flooded in from across the political spectrum, echoed by voices in showbusiness and environmental campaigners.

MARY CREAGH MP, who chairs the Commons environmental audit committee, said she was 'delighted the Daily Mail is joining my committee's call on the Government to ban this rubbish from cosmetics'.

She added that 'microbeads are polluting the oceans and entering the food chain'.

Ban the beads: Support for Mail campaign has flooded in from across political spectrum

And CAROLINE LUCAS, Green Party MP, said: 'A ban on damaging microbeads can't come too soon and it's good to see the Mail recognises the urgency of the issue.

'These tiny plastic particles are totally unnecessary and need a big campaign to get the Government to immediately banish them for good.'

SANDRA HOWARD, Baroness Howard of Lympne and wife of Michael Howard, is concerned about the plastic in the food we eat.

The author and former model said: 'Fish is my favourite food... It seems absurd that we are pouring plastic into the sea, with the risk of contaminating the fish we eat.

'I applaud the Mail for this campaign. I for one will be avoiding [microbeads] in future.' Radio 4 broadcaster JENNI MURRAY went even further, and immediately threw away items containing microbeads after admitting she previously had 'no idea how dangerous' they were.

She said that when she found out, she 'promptly went to the bathroom and found two containers of shower gel – both expensive gifts, both containing the offending beads.

'I threw them out unopened. I'm now checking the ingredients of every product to make sure I don't add to the pollution.'

Supporting the cause: A flurry of leading MPs have spoken out in favour of 'ban the beads'

Similarly, EMMA SOAMES was unaware of the dangers posed by microbeads, but now says she is 'very eager to join this campaign'.

The editor-at-large of Saga magazine confessed that she had not made the link between ocean pollution and 'what I use on my face'. Greenpeace UK has also created a campaign to banish the microbeads which had gained 350,000 signatures last night –highlighting the public desire to cleanse our oceans of plastics.

Its director JOHN SAUVEN said: 'It's great to see the Mail calling for action on this.

'Now Theresa May's Government needs to take leadership and ban microbeads to protect both consumers and our oceans.'

Other MPs to join the call included leader of the Liberal Democrats TIM FARRON. Praising the Mail's initiative, he added: 'We were proud to introduce a charge on plastic bags which has proven so effective. This is another sensible measure which helps protect our environment.'

And Tory ZAC GOLDSMITH stated that there is 'no good reason' to delay a ban on the pollutants. He said: 'Most consumers would be appalled to learn that a single shower can release tens of thousands of plastic microbeads.'

Former Blue Peter presenter JANET ELLIS also put her name to our campaign, and said she now 'avoids microbeads like the plague' in beauty products.

Others who pledged their support include health and beauty editor at Hello! magazine NADINE BAGGOTT, and charities THE WILDLIFE TRUSTS and FRIENDS OF THE EARTH.

These beads are causing carnage in the oceans' says Philip Hoare, author of The Sea Inside

We struggle to see the terrible damage we are doing the earth's waters

Fact is that eight million tonnes of plastic enter the oceans annually

An estimated 663 marine species are affected by plastic pollution

We tend to believe that the sea is mostly pure and clean. We feel it is invigorating and health-giving. But, then, we cannot peer deep down into it. We cannot see through what Moby-Dick's creator Herman Melville called 'the ocean's skin'.

Which means we cannot see the terrible damage we are doing to the waters that make up 71 per cent of our planet's surface.

The fact is that eight million tonnes of plastic enter the oceans annually. Everything from plastic bags — against which this newspaper has campaigned so admirably and successfully — to large chunks of industrial plastic, and vast quantities of these microbeads, ends up in the sea. In the U.S. alone, it has been estimated that 18 trillion microbeads are discharged into the sea every year.

DAILY MAIL COMMENT Day two of this newspaper's campaign and already the evidence for an urgent ban on the menace of plastic microbeads is overwhelming. Today's revelation that more than one in three fish caught in the seas off Britain – including cod, haddock and mackerel – contain 'toxic plastic' is utterly chilling. It is equally alarming that plastic fragments are found in 83 per cent of lobsters used for scampi in Britain. Fuelling this plastic poison is the torrent of microbeads contained in countless everyday products, from shower gels to toothpastes. Once in the sea, they soak up dangerous toxins and are then eaten by fish which end up on our dinner plates. The potential damage they are doing to human – and animal – health is as terrifying as it is unknown. It is also entirely unnecessary. Natural and harmless alternatives such as apricot kernels and silica are already in use. Some companies are promising to remove microbeads by 2020. That is simply not good enough, especially when others, such as Unilever, which produces the Dove and Simple ranges, have already done so. Scandalously, while a US ban will be in force next year, the EU is nowhere. Ministers have made vague noises about a ban, when what is needed is leadership. Ban the toxic beads – now. Advertisement

Nicola Hodgins, head of science and research at Whale and Dolphin Conservation (WDC), notes that a staggering 100,000 marine mammals die each year as a result of plastic pollution. She calls it, quite simply, carnage.

Plastic is consumed by animals from turtles to seabirds and an estimated 663 marine species are affected by plastic pollution.

A recent study showed that 90 per cent of all seabirds have plastic in their stomachs. There, it can cause internal bleeding and starvation, and the WDC estimates one million seabirds die this way annually. Albatross chicks, fed plastic debris by their unwitting parents, starve to death because their bellies are so full of the stuff, which they cannot digest.

Tiny beads of plastic are even ingested and retained by molluscs such as mussels and oysters. Belgian toxicologist Colin Janssen has found that, on average, each gram of mussel flesh contains one particle of plastic.

And while some fish are able to excrete the particles from their bodies, the United Nations Environment Programme says that 30 per cent of all fish have plastic in their bodies. By 2050, there will be more plastic by weight in the oceans than fish.

Not all of this plastic is microbeads, of course. Much of it has been broken down over time into smaller pieces or 'microplastics' — through exposure to the sun, weathering and biodegradation. This process of breakdown exposes the sea and its wildlife to toxic chemicals used in plastic-making and so compounds the polluting effect.

Microbeads are, in effect, ready-formed microplastics. As such, they are an immediate source of toxicity, as they carry and release dangerous chemicals such as phthalates, which have been linked to breast cancer, reproductive failures and metabolic problems. Once consumed, the beads release the chemicals in the stomach, and 'can wreak havoc on the hormone systems of mammals, including whales', says Rob Lott, of the WDC.

Studies show the Mediterranean has up to 892,000 pieces of microplastic per square kilometre, and scientists believe that the six-fold decrease in the fin whale population of the Med over the past 20 years may be attributed to reproductive failure due to this chain of effects.

Philip Hoare: Terrifyingly, each single bead or microplastic particle is up to one million times more able to absorb toxic chemicals than the water around it

Microbeads have exacerbated this problem to a terrible degree. They are so small that they are ingested by the organisms at the very starting point of the food chain.

Phytoplankton and zooplankton — the tiny plants and animals on which the rest of the ocean depends — ingest microbeads, mistaking them for fish eggs. These beads have been shown to inhibit the plankton's feeding and its ability to reproduce, and can even directly poison and kill them.

Film shot at the Plymouth Marine Laboratory, and released for the first time last month, shows plankton greedily swallowing microbeads, which fill their guts like footballs.

HOW UK MICROBEAD BAN COULD FORCE THE EU TO ACT Brussels could be forced to take action on microbeads if Britain introduces a ban in defiance of EU rules, campaigners said last night. Experts claim that although a unilateral move by the UK could potentially flout single market rules, it would push EU officials to accelerate change. Member states have been putting pressure on the European Commission to get its act together on the pollutants for years, with little progress. Nearly two years ago, the Netherlands, Austria, Belgium, Luxembourg and Sweden issued a joint demand to ban the tiny plastic particles used in detergents and cosmetics. And in May the pressure was stepped up further, as almost half of MEPs signed a demand for action, followed by a decision by all 28 EU states to ask for a ban at a meeting of environment ministers in June. Campaigners yesterday said Britain should follow the example of Italy, which in 2011 was told it could not ban plastic bags because of EU rules. When Rome introduced the ban anyway from 2013, Brussels re-wrote rules to allow countries to bring in such legislation. Emma Priestland, of Brussels-based group Seas At Risk, said: 'We hope that the new UK government will show its green credentials and introduce a ban, which will then force the Commission to follow suit.' Advertisement

Yet the well-being of these tiny animals is vital if we are to avoid catastrophic consequences — because there is an inexorable knock-on effect as the plastic pollution works its way through the feeding chain.

We know that the world's biggest animals, the baleen whales — such as the blue whale and the humpback — feed on minute organisms in the form of krill and copepods.

A recent study published by Canadian scientists at the Vancouver Aquarium is the first to try to quantify the damage caused by plastic during this process. It notes that a humpback whale eats 1.5 per cent of its body weight in krill and zooplankton every day. That means it could be consuming 300,000 microplastic particles daily.

Philip Hoare: Microbeads are, in effect, ready-formed microplastics. As such, they are an immediate source of toxicity

What a terrible notion: that one of the Earth's most stupendous and sentient animals should be threatened by something so inconsequential. Worse still, these microplastics actually attract other pollutants, acting as what scientists call vectors.

Industrial chemicals such as PCBs (used as coolants in electrical equipment) and flame-retardants (which protect furniture), wash into the sea, then stick to the microbeads' rough and pitted surfaces, designed that way because the beads are meant to act as an abrasive polishing agent.

Terrifyingly, each single bead or microplastic particle is up to one million times more able to absorb toxic chemicals than the water around it.

These particles carry their toxins with them into the food chain, and we eat the seafood — the oysters, the mussels, the lobsters and the fish — in which microbeads are found.

Philip Hoare: Studies show the Mediterranean has up to 892,000 pieces of microplastic per square kilometre

It is true that, as we do not normally eat the guts of fish, we may not eat the microbeads they have ingested. Yet we are almost certainly consuming the toxic chemicals that microbeads have passed into the fish's bloodstream. And when we eat shellfish, we'll be swallowing the microbeads, as they have been ingested as well.

Even if you don't eat fish, you will be affected by the microbead menace. A quarter of fish caught globally enter the food chain in other ways — including in feed for pigs and poultry. In China, scientists have even found microbeads in table salt.

No one knows what the long-term effect of microbeads will be. This is one big experiment, in which we are the guinea pigs.

But the greatest worry is what they are doing to the rest of the planet, on which we depend for our survival. Professor Richard Lampitt, of the world-renowned National Oceanography Centre in Southampton, and his colleague Katsiaryna Pabortsava, are part of a team conducting extensive surveys in the Atlantic, sampling deep-sea sediment for microplastics.

There, the team has discovered microplastic falling to the seabed like 'marine snow'.

Philip Hoare: No one knows what the long-term effect of microbeads will be. This is one big experiment, in which we are the guinea pigs

The extent of Professor Lampitt's work — his sampling takes him as far as the Falkland Islands — is a reflection of how seriously the scientific establishment is taking the problem. He tells me: 'The issue of concern is how microplastics and their associated chemicals affect ecosystem structure and function.

'These effects may not be immediately obvious, but can be very profound and have far-reaching implications.'

Like many people in Britain, I am passionate about the sea. My great-grandfather was a fisherman in Whitby, North Yorkshire. I swim in the sea every day of the year in Southampton, where I live — and on high summer days, such as during this week, I am joined by scores of other swimmers.

They, too, will have reconnected with the ocean's natural wonders.

O ver the past few weeks, I have watched thousands of gannets, our largest sea birds, diving off Bass Rock in the Firth of Forth in Scotland. I've seen harbour porpoises feeding in the waters of Torbay, and glinting mackerel caught in their hundreds off the South Coast as the sea demonstrates its extraordinary resilience.

It is heart-breaking to think that the actions of corporations seeking to maximise profits may be endangering all of this without our even knowing it. But we do have the power to change things. Contrary to what some manufacturers seem to believe, we are not passive consumers. We can vote with our money.

So don't buy products with microbeads and ask your local shop or supermarket to stop stocking them.