On a Friday morning, walk through any kitchen market in Dhaka, and you will notice how difficult it is to escape plastic. A piece of rui arrives in a thin polythene bag. Shutki is packed in plastic sacks. Even salt comes in a packet that may end up in a drain before the day is over. Bangladesh banned thin polythene shopping bags in 2002, becoming the first country to do so. Yet, more than two decades later, we can still buy a kilo of fish wrapped in one.
As a public health professional, my bigger concern is what we cannot see. Plastic does not simply disappear. It breaks down into tiny particles called microplastics, less than five millimetres in size. They are detected in water, fish, salt and other parts of our food chain. We are beginning to understand the scale of the problem, but we still question its long-term effects on human health. That uncertainty should make us more careful, not complacent.
Plastic does not simply disappear in Bangladesh’s heat and humidity. Sunlight, heat and friction turn shopping bags, bottles and fishing nets into smaller fragments. Washing machines add another source, releasing synthetic fibres from clothes into wastewater. Untreated sewage and industrial effluents can carry these particles into rivers, and our rivers eventually carry them towards the Bay of Bengal. Bangladeshi researchers are now documenting this journey. A study in May 2026 found plastic in more than 93 percent of 90 fish species sampled from Dhanmondi, Gulshan and Hatirjheel lakes, with about 36 particles per litre detected in Gulshan Lake water. Along the coast, a 2024 study published in Ecotoxicology and Environmental Safety found roughly seven to eight particles per fish in Cox’s Bazar and Kuakata. Other research has detected plastic fibres in loitta and sardines from northern Bay, while WorldFish-supported research found microplastics in shutki, where drying may concentrate them. Microplastics have also been detected in locally produced sea salt, although refined salt generally contains fewer particles.
But there is an important caveat. Many fish studies look mainly at the digestive tract, which we normally remove before eating. That is different for small fish such as mola and kachki, and for shutki, which are often eaten whole. So, what does this mean for our health? This is where we need to resist both panic and complacency. The evidence is clear – microplastics are present in our food, water and air. Researchers are also increasingly finding them in human tissues. What remains less certain is exactly what long-term exposure means for our health. That uncertainty should encourage better research and precaution, rather than silence.
What we are learning about microplastics is worrying, but it is important not to get ahead of the evidence. A 2024 study in the New England Journal of Medicine, involving Italian patients who had undergone carotid artery surgery, found that those whose arterial plaque contained plastic were about 4.5 times more likely to suffer a heart attack, stroke or die during the following 34 months. That is a striking finding, but it shows an association, not proof that plastic caused those outcomes. A widely circulated 2025 study reporting microplastics in human brains has also been questioned. Experts cited by the UK’s Science Media Centre noted that body fat resembles polyethylene as per the testing method. We should remember that a 2019 WHO review concluded that microplastics in drinking water did not appear to pose a health risk at the levels then observed, while also acknowledging how limited the available evidence was. For Bangladesh, the WHO makes another important point: sewage-borne pathogens remain a much greater threat to water safety. Better wastewater treatment can address that problem and, as a bonus, remove much of the plastic pollution as well.
So why should Bangladesh take microplastics seriously? The answer is partly in our geography and partly in our habits. We sit downstream of one of the world’s great river systems. Fish is a daily food for millions, and the use of plastic continues to rise. World Bank data show that urban plastic consumption tripled from 3 kg per person in 2005 to 9 kg in 2020. In Dhaka, it reached 22.25 kg, while only 37.2 percent of the city’s plastic waste was recycled. Across Asia, the warning signs are becoming harder to ignore. A Cornell study covering 109 countries found particularly high microplastic intake in Southeast Asia, estimating US consumption at about 2.4 grams a month and Indonesia’s at roughly 15 grams. In India, Toxics Link found microplastics in all 10 salt and five sugar samples it tested in 2024, with packaged iodised salt showing the highest levels.
Our policy gaps are familiar. The 2002 ban lives largely on paper. Polythene was banned in supermarkets from October 2024, and the government has listed 17 single-use items. Yet, as far as I know, nobody routinely tests our salt, shutki or bottled water for microplastics. Globally, plastics treaty talks collapsed in December 2024 and again in August 2025, and Climate Home News reports the next formal round is expected in late 2026 or early 2027.
So, what should we do? The government needs to start with three practical steps. First, Bangladesh needs a national monitoring programme for salt, dried fish and bottled water, led by the Bangladesh Food Safety Authority and supported by an accredited reference laboratory using multiple testing methods. Second, enforcement must move upstream. Instead of focusing only on shoppers, we need to act against factories producing illegal polythene and introduce stronger producer responsibility, making packaging companies contribute to collection and recovery. Third, better sewage treatment for Dhaka’s lakes and rivers can tackle two problems at once: disease-causing germs and plastic pollution. Bangladesh should also use its voice in future international treaty negotiations to support limits on plastic production, not only improved waste management. Industry cannot stand aside. Salt processors can strengthen filtration and publish test results. Fish processors can reduce plastic contact during drying and packaging, while garment factories can install fibre filters in effluent treatment systems.
There are things ordinary citizens can do too. Carry a jute bag. Do not heat food in plastic containers. And, as a water expert has warned, avoid eating fish caught from heavily polluted Dhaka lakes. Bangladesh has faced difficult challenges before. Much of the plastic problem has grown from everyday practices, so changing those practices, together with firm government action, can make a real difference. Microplastics may be tiny, but the issue is not. We should stop treating it as a problem for tomorrow. The plate in front of us is today’s.
The views expressed in this article are solely those of the author
The writer is a public health professional, educator, author, and media commentator. Email: [email protected]
