Little is known about the prevalence of microplastics (MPs) in East Africa. In the present study, sediments were sampled at 18 sites along the Tanzanian coast that exhibit different levels of anthropogenic activity and were extracted using floatation methodology. Cockles (Anadara antiquata) were collected only from eight sites and MPs were extracted following NaOH digestion. MPs were most abundant at Mtoni Kijichi Creek (MKC, 2972 ± 238 particles kg⁻¹ dry sediment), an industrial port in Dar es Salaam, and significantly higher than all other sites where the abundance range was 15–214 particles kg⁻¹ dry sediment (p < 0.05, one-way ANOVA). Fragments and fibers were found at all sites. Polypropylene and polyethylene were identified polymers. MPs were found in cockles from all sampled sites with both frequencies of occurrence and MPs per individual subject to site-specific variation. This study provides a baseline of MP data in a previously uninvestigated area.

关于东非的微塑料（MPs）的患病知之甚少。在本研究中，沿坦桑尼亚海岸的18个站点取样了沉积物，这些沉积物表现出不同程度的人为活动，并使用浮选方法进行了提取。仅从八个位置收集鸟蛤（Anadara antiquata），并在NaOH消化后提取MP。MPs最丰富的是Mtoni Kijichi Creek（MKC，2972±238颗粒kg ^-1干沉积物），是达累斯萨拉姆的一个工业港口，并且显着高于丰度范围为15–214颗粒kg ^-1干的所有其他地点沉积物（p <0.05，单向方差分析）。在所有位置均发现碎片和纤维。聚丙烯和聚乙烯被确定为聚合物。在所有采样点的鸟蛤中都发现了MPs，其出现频率和每位个体的MPs都有特定点的变化。这项研究提供了先前未研究区域MP数据的基线。