People who eat seafood ingest up to 11,000 tiny pieces of plastic every year with dozens of particles becoming embedded in tissues, scientists warn in new findings that point up the dangers of ocean plastics contamination.

Researchers from the University of Ghent in Belgium say microplastics accumulate in the body over time and could pose a long-term health risk, The Telegraph reports.

They add that the amount of plastic absorbed will only get worse as pollution in the oceans increases.

"Now we've established that they do enter our body and can stay there for quite a while, we do need to know the fate of the plastics,” lead researcher Dr. Colin Janssen told Sky News.

“Where do they go? Are they encapsulated by tissue and forgotten about by the body, or are they causing inflammation or doing other things?

“Are chemicals leaching out of these plastics and then causing toxicity? We don't know and actually we do need to know.”