Classification of microplastics in living organism using color polarization camera

In recent years, marine pollution caused by the deterioration of plastic products and scrub particles, which are raw materials for cosmetics, has become a problem. There are concerns that microplastics discharged into the ocean are ingested by fish and other animals, and then accumulated in the human body, causing health problems. To solve this problem, methods for quantifying microplastics in seawater have been attracting attention. Recently, measurement methods under crossed Nicols and Raman spectroscopy have become mainstream. Each method has the advantage of being able to measure visually and accurately to the type, but a simpler and more accurate measurement method is required.Therefore, we focused on marine organisms that ingest microplastics. Plastics have birefringence. Taking advantage of this property, we use a color polarization camera to measure microplastics. This camera can determine the wavelength dispersion characteristics of birefringence with a single shot and also enables real-time measurement with video.