 |
| Lugworm (photo: Wikimedia Commons) |
Researchers from Royal Holloway (University of London) find them as they do their research on the coasts and islands of Scotland. Lugworms ingest anything they come across, including plastic, as they go along swallowing sand. And this ingested microplastic (anything less than 5mm long) gets passed up the food chain into birds and fish.
There are many unanswered questions around what impacts microplastics have, but these researchers are looking at how plastic is getting into the marine ecosystem. They are analysing the types of plastic polymer they are finding in the washed up plastic they find in Scotland, to try and guess where it might be coming from.
Microplastic is now considered to be one of the most widespread contaminants in the world, being found everywhere from deep oceans and in whale stomachs, to arctic regions.
The Plastic Age?
Following on from the Bronze and Iron Ages, might we be entering the Plastic Age? Is this what our phase of civilisation will be remembered for?
Dr Jennifer Brandon, from the Scripps Institute of Oceanography at UC San Diego, is studying sedimentary rocks off the Californian coast. "I found this exponential increase in microplastics being left behind in our sediment record.... The plastic we're using is getting out into the ocean and we're leaving it behind in our fossil record."
 |
| (photo: ecomagazine.com) |
This is incredible to think about - that centuries down the line, this (plastic) will be used by future geologists and archaeologists, as our geological marker!
Plastic in the wilderness:
Airborne microplastics have been found in the Pyrenees mountains (on the French / Spanish border), an area previously considered to be pristine wilderness. Researchers from Strathclyde and Toulouse Universities estimate that an average of 365 plastic pieces per m2, per day, are winding up in the Pyrenees - and some of them may be travelling up to 60 miles to get there!
Plastic in animals:
So if microplastic particles are being ingested by plankton and coral polyps; how much bio-accumulation (the gradual accumulation of substances in an organism) is going on by the time you go up the food chain to the larger fish species? If you buy a nice piece of fish, like a tuna steak, how much plastic has made its way into that animal?
University of Exeter and Plymouth Marine Laboratories examined 50 animals from 10 species of dolphin, seal and whale, and found that they all had microplastics in their gut. 84% of these were synthetic fibres, and the rest were fragments of food packaging and plastic bottles.
Lead researcher, Sarah Nelms, said, "The number of particles in each animal was relatively low suggesting they eventually pass through the digestive system or are regurgitated."
How does it affect us?
The World Health Organisation (WHO) released a report in August this year, which basically says that there is no conclusive proof that plastic particles found in tap and bottled water pose any type of health hazard to humans - but - more studies are needed.
They found that larger, and most smaller, particles pass through the human body without being absorbed. But they admit that this is based on limited information, as research has only begun in recent years, and also that there is no standardisation to tests being used. So that means that there is no risk, 'at current levels.'
WHO say that proper water treatment processes remove at least 90% of microplastics, and that water companies should focus on the known risks; so in the short-term that means faecal matter, as this is responsible for at least one million deaths each year.
We'll leave the last word to Dr Brandon, "We know that there's a lot of microplastic and we keep finding it everywhere we look for it. But the implications of the health effects of it and how it really affects animals and humans, we're only just starting to scratch the surface of those questions."
Research:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-49798057
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-glasgow-west-47947235
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-highlands-islands-47078733
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-49430038
No comments:
Post a Comment