KUALA LUMPUR: A committee will be set up to tackle the issue of microplastics, the Dewan Rakyat was told today.
Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Fadillah Yusof, who is energy transition and water transformation minister, said the committee would involve various ministries to allow it to better coordinate on the issue.
"The next step is to involve related ministries and identify new pollutants, including microplastics, and how they affect our health and the environment.
"In terms of legislation, we have various laws, including local councils.
"So coordination is necessary for us to take action on how to handle new pollutants, monitoring process, and new methods or standard operation procedures as present procedures might not be able to cover new pollutants."
He said this in a response to Syed Ibrahim Syed Noh (Pakatan Harapan-Ledang) on measures taken by the government to tackle microplastics.
On a report by Cornell University in the United States titled 'Study maps human uptake of microplastics across 109 countries', published in the 'Environmental Science And Technology' magazine in May, Fadillah said it was crucial for Malaysia to conduct its own studies on the impact of microplastic exposure on humans and the environment.
The report said Malaysians ate 15gm of microplastics per month from seafood sources, ranking Malaysia among 109 countries in microplastic consumption.