London: Microplastics have been found in humans for the first time leading to fears they could be causing a raft of health and fertility problems.

Although previous studies have calculated that Europeans could ingest as many as 11,000 tiny pieces of plastic a year, through consuming seafood or accidentally eating bits of packaging, it has never been proven until now.

Plastic ingested by a plankton is shown in fluro green.

Scientists at the Austrian Environment Agency and the University of Vienna analysed stool samples of people from eight countries and found every one contained microplastics.

In some cases nine different types of plastic were found in a single sample. On average, 20 microplastic particles per 10g of human waste were found.