Tag: microplastics

The Microplastic Pollution: Causes, Effects, and Can You Stop It?

 
microplastic pollution causes effects and prevention

here is a myriad of studies showing that we live on a plastic planet and this affects everything from natural habitats to human health. While we are (or should be) aware that plastic pollution destroys entire environments, microplastic pollution is a less known phenomenon to the larger public. Many organizations, however, are taking important steps to prevent the damage humanity has already caused. Today we will take a closer look at the microplastic pollution concept, its causes, effects, and the means we have at our disposal to put a stop to it.

What is Microplastic Pollution?

According to the U.S. National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration, microplastic represents plastic particles, which are less than 5 mm in diameter, and which originate from a variety of sources, including cosmetics, clothing, and industrial processes.

Microplastic particles are currently the subject of two classifications:
  • Primary microplastics: they are purposely manufactured to be microscopic and make the direct result of human material and product use. You can find them in cosmetics or air blasting technology.
  • Secondary microplastics: they are plastic fragments, which derive from the breakdown or fragmentation of larger plastic debris like the macroscopic parts that make up the bulk of the Great Pacific Garbage Patch.

Both types of microplastics persist in the environment at very high levels, particularly in marine ecosystems, together with their larger family members, such as plastic bottles and other products.

According to recent studies and reports, microplastics erode in time to particles as small as 1-100 nm – nano plastics. Using modeling tools, scientists were able to estimate that a total of 15-51 trillion microplastic particles have accumulated in the ocean. While some start as large plastic pieces eroded by water and other elements, others make up the category of “waste by design.” At this point in the story, we have to mention microbeads present in cosmetic products such as exfoliating facewash, soaps and shower creams, toothpaste, body scrubs, and many more. These microbeads are stable and versatile particulates. After we wash them down the drain, these particles are able to evade water filtration systems at water treatment works and go directly into the oceans.

How Much Microplastic do You Eat and Drink?

A study conducted recently showed that we have great reasons for concern when it comes to the microplastic pollution in our own tap water. Researchers tested tap water samples in more than a dozen countries on the globe, only to find that microplastic contamination is present at a global level. The study shows that 83% of the samples presented plastic fibers pollution. The average number of fibers found in each 500 ml sample ranged from 4.8 in the US to 1.9 in Europe.

In other words, microplastic pollution is ubiquitous and has a negative impact on all levels. Since microplastics are present not only in ocean water but it our own treated and filtered tap water, the next logical hypothesis is that we also consume microplastic contaminated fish and marine food.

According to recent research, the problem may be even bigger than ingesting plastics for animals and humans: the microplastics act as carriers by absorbing and concentrating chemicals present in the environment that is persistent, bioaccumulative and toxic, known as PBT compounds. This means, on top of the damage caused by the microplastic particles themselves, harmful chemicals can be carried and released into the body of animals and people.

Scientists also detected microplastic particulates in seafood sold for human consumption, such as mussels, oysters and sea salt. It has been estimated that the average European shellfish consumer could ingest up to 11,000 microplastic particles per year and in Chinese shellfish consumers, it is predicted to be an order of magnitude higher.

While microplastics can pass right through the gut without causing significant health problems for humans and animals, nano-plastics, on the other hand, could pass across the gut in theory. Unfortunately, we do not yet have the means and analytical methods to assess such issues.

Simpler put, microplastic pollution may prove to be even more dangerous in the long term than plastic pollution, because it is invisible and we have yet a lot to study about its long-term impact. Some studies on examining the bodies of beached whales, found large pieces of plastic stuck in the guts of such creatures, but the effect of microplastics, though less obvious, might be just as harmful.

While we need to study oceanic megafauna closer and closer, we also need to understand better the harm we cause by manufacturing microplastics.

The Cosmetic Industry Takes the First Steps to reduce Microplastic Pollution

Cosmetics Europe recommended that by 2020, cosmetic companies phase-out the use of microbeads in their products. According to Chris Flower, director-general of the Cosmetic Toiletry and Perfumery Association, “most companies have completed their phase-out and total usage has already fallen by over 70%. The remainder will do so before the end of 2018, two years ahead of the deadline set by Cosmetics Europe and well before any possible legislative ban could take effect.”

This is among one of the best news out there, but we all have to understand that the cosmetic industry and its exfoliating microbeads are a literal drop of water into an ocean. Cosmetic-derived microplastic pollution it is only a small fraction (0.01-4.1%) of the estimated total level of microplastics in the oceans.

If we put things into perspective, let us all pay attention to the fact that eight trillion microbeads were entering aquatic environments throughout the United States every day back in 2015. This year, marine biologists warned that many species of marine wildlife are already under threat from other problems, such as overfishing and pollution. The added stress from microplastics could push some species further towards extinction, the authors of the study warned.

What can we do about Microplastic Pollution?

The easiest and most mindful way of reducing or pushing the break to microplastic pollution is to stop things at their source. Instead of filling up vast landfills with plastic products, we should reconsider plastic as recyclable, reusable materials. Moreover, the ones responsible for plastic manufacturing should consider bettering the process and turning plastic into a more biodegradable material. Unfortunately, the present biodegradable plastic still persists in the environment for many, many years, so it is not yet the best solution we can come up with.

At a personal level, we can all contribute to reducing the amounts of plastic we use every day. We should all be more mindful of where the plastic we use ends up every day and what plastic products we can give up to without changing our lifestyles and levels of comfort.

Do you have other ideas on how to lower the microplastic pollution and its negative impact on the environment and our health? Besides giving up on certain cosmetic products and using less plastic, what other ways do we have to prevent the planet turning into a plastic landfill?

David

Microplastics In The Bottled Water: Why It Isn’t Safe

Bottled water

(Photo : conger design)

Have you seen tiny bits of plastics in the water that you drink? People who have become aware of the presence of microplastics in the ocean waters must have opted for bottled water, thinking that the packaging has made them so much safer. Sadly, experts say that the problem on microplastics has only gotten worse and that it might have found its way on the water systems, into the homes and perhaps even in sealed bottled water. 

The problem with plastic rests not just on those huge grocery bags that people cannot seem to let go of. Rather, the problem is on those minuscule plastics that have entered the food chain and to an extent even the human body. In the oceans, microplastic pollution has become a cause for concern due to its known harmful effects on marine life in general.

Now, the World Health Organization (WHO) has released a statement that has alarmed the bells for they believe that microplastics have found their way into the water source. Both tap water and bottled water are no longer as safe as they used to be. They revealed this and all the other potential threats that microplastics may have on the human body once ingested in the 124-page report that was published on August 22. 

The report emphasized the need for a better understanding of the health impacts that come with ingesting microplastics into the human body. They also said that there is a need for better screening methods to be in place before microplastics become a health concern.

Dr. Andrew Mayes, a researcher and scientist from the School of Chemistry of the University of East Anglia, said that he welcomes the thought of the presence of microplastics in bottled waters. He devised a method for people to be able to detect if their bottled water contains some form of microplastic. In his interview with Express.co.uk, this chemistry expert explained how it was even possible for bottled waters to be still contaminated. 

"Microplastics are everywhere. They are in the water that we drink and in the air that we breathe. They are everywhere," Dr. Mayes said. 

There is no definite solution to deal with microplastic pollution. The report submitted by the WHO reveals that these come in varying amounts in water, ranging upto 1,000 particles per liter. Can you imagine how many microplastics could be inside your body system now after finishing that liter of water for the day? There may be a little too much it could get you sick.

David

Micro Plastics Global Hazard

Potential risk to the human population

Global quantity and weight of floating plastics, lacking data

Microplastics often cannot be seen with naked eye

Billions of people are drinking water contaminated with plastic particles

The Solution

Hazardous Waste has the potential to slowly kill humanity

Prior to 1970, all food products were either sold individually, packaged in paper or in reusable returnable glass bottles or glass jars, packed in cartons, and cans. Disposable plastic packaging was still unknown at the time and came into existence in the late 1960’s, after the Rockefeller bloodline family wanted more and alternative applications for the by-products of their oil imperium. The beginning stages of the invention of plastic does however date back to the 1930’s. Today, plastics have become universal in use for the manufacturing of everyday products and all kinds of packaging materials.

Originally, the decision was made to create plastic containers for the food processing industry after WW2, the production of which the bloodline families also had worldwide control. Almost at once plastic packaging applications were sprouting up everywhere in the early 1970s. Though it probably wasn’t the original intention to cause pollution, this enormous scale of waste isn’t by accident, but rather by design. The largest global market sector for plastic materials is for packaging designed for immediate disposal. Fortunately, some plastic waste is recycled but mainly in the west and not very much in developing countries.

Now, fifty years later, plastic pollution is globally dispersed across all oceans due to plastic’s characteristics of abundance and durability. In the meantime, a concentration of toxicants is spreading throughout the environment. This has led some researchers to claim that synthetic polymers in the oceans should be regarded as hazardous waste. Through photo degradation and other weathering processes, plastic fragments contaminate the oceans in the form of tiny particles.

Potential risk to human populations

These tiny plastic pieces are called Microplastics and Microbeads, both of which are polluting the world’s oceans in a vastly greater capacity than previously estimated, according to recently conducted research. Microplastic and Microbead contamination of the oceans is one of the world’s most pressing environmental concerns. The terrestrial component of the global microplastic accounts is not well understood because sources, stores and changes are poorly quantified, says Rachel Hurley from the University of Manchester;

“Given their pervasive and persistent nature, Microplastics have become a global environmental concern and a potential risk to human populations.”

The report also reveals that major floods flushed more than 40 billion particles of microplastics into the sea. The surge of such a vast amount of microplastics led the scientists to conclude that the current estimate for the number of particles in the ocean – five trillion – is a major underestimation.

Microplastics generally refer to plastic particles between 0.33 mm and 5 mm in size.  Microplastics can originate from a variety of sources including, microbeads from personal care products; fibres from synthetic clothing; pre-production pellets and powders; and fragments degraded from larger plastic products.

Microplastics, constituting pieces of plastic smaller than 5 millimetres, enter the environment through the defragmentation of larger pieces of plastic that have been disposed of in the environment, or directly as microbeads through things like synthetic fibres from clothes or disposable outerwear.

Unfortunately, many of the world’s coastal countries currently do not have recycling policies, nor the technical capabilities to deal with this menace, so large quantities of plastic are not recycled, but are rather dumped in landfills. The durable property of plastic makes it persistent and slow to degrade in the environment, and ultimately non-recycled plastics on land and in our rivers, are left to work their way into the oceans.

Plastic waste is a global problem; as large quantities can travel far distances. Waste from one place can become an issue in a region geographically distant from the original source, due to the oceans’ powerful currents.

Plastic ocean pollution has become synonymous with microplastic pollution. Typically, less than 5 mm in size, microplastics can be eroded to particles as small as 1–100 nm particles– nanoplastics. Using modelling tools, it was estimated that a total of 15–51 trillion microplastic particles have accumulated in the oceans. Some start out as large plastic pieces, slowly being eroded by water; others start off as microplastics specifically produced for certain uses, e.g. microbeads in cosmetic products such as face wash, soaps and shower creams. Microbeads are stable and versatile particulates but after they have been washed down the drain, they have been found to evade filtration systems at water treatment plants and are discharged directly into the oceans. It seems impossible to completely eliminate the microplastic problem. Fragments have also been detected in seafood sold for human consumption, such as mussels, oysters and sea salt. It has been estimated that the average European shellfish consumer could ingest up to 11,000 microplastic particles per year, in China it is probably of a vastly greater magnitude!

Global quantity and weight of floating plastics lacking data

The volume of plastic pollution, largely originating from products such as food and drink packaging and clothing, was calculated from data taken from 24 expeditions over a six-year period from 2007 to 2013. The research, published in the journal PLOS One, is the first study to look at plastics of all sizes in the world’s oceans. Plastic pollution is omnipresent throughout the marine environment, yet estimates of the global quantity and weight of floating plastics are lacking hard data, particularly from the Southern Hemisphere and remote regions.

The scale of this issue is massive. In one study, it was estimated that of the 275 million tonnes of plastic waste generated by 192 countries in 2010, about 4.8–12.7 million tonnes probably landed up in the ocean. That’s a serious amount in just one year. The plastic, consisting of various shapes and sizes, ends up on beaches and in the oceans from various sources: large items such as discarded fishing equipment or items from shipping containers are lost into the sea directly, whereas other discarded items can get washed into the seas from rivers. Similarly, inadequately managed land-based plastic waste from countries with extensive coastlines can easily end up in the oceans.

Microplastics often cannot be seen with naked eye

Microplastics are small pieces of plastic material that is found in the marine environment and on our beaches and shorelines. Some of these particles are so small that they cannot be seen with the naked eye. Others often blend in with the sand and organic material found on beaches, making them hard to spot. For this reason, they are not picked up by water filtration and make it out into rivers and oceans.

Microplastics include broken-down plastic waste, synthetic fibres and beads found in personal hygiene products. They are known to harm marine life, which mistake them for food, and can be consumed by humans too via seafood, tap water or other foods, like honey and sugar, the assertion of which was proven due to samples taken in Germany, France, Italy, Spain and Mexico.

Dr Anne Marie Mahon at the Galway-Mayo Institute of Technology, who conducted Microplastic research, said there were two principal concerns: very small plastic particles and the chemicals or pathogens that microplastics can harbour.

“If the fibres are there, it is possible that the nanoparticles are there too that we can’t measure,” she said. “Once they are in the nanometre range they can really penetrate a cell and that means they can penetrate organs, and that would be worrying.” The Orb analyses caught particles of more than 2.5 microns in size, 2,500 times bigger than a nanometre. Microplastics can attract bacteria found in sewage, Mahon said: “Some studies have shown there are more harmful pathogens on microplastics downstream of wastewater treatment plants.”

The risk to people is still not known, but there are concerns that microplastics can accumulate toxic chemicals and that the tiniest of particles could be invading the human bloodstream. Plastics are already nestling inside our body.

Billions of people globally are drinking water contaminated by plastic particles

Since microplastic contamination has been found in tap water in countries around the world, leading to calls from scientists for urgent research into the implications for health. Scores of tap water samples from more than a dozen nations were analysed by scientists. Overall, 83% of the samples were contaminated with plastic fibres. These microscopic plastic fibres were present in the water flowing from faucets from New York to New Delhi, according to Orb’s exclusive research and a researcher from the School of Public Health at the University of Minnesota. From the halls of the US Capitol to the shores of Lake Victoria in Uganda, women, children, men and babies are drinking plastic particles with every glass of water. More than 80 percent of the samples collected in five continents tested positive for the presence of plastic fibres.

 

Plastic is an essential raw material. In 2012, the plastics industry accounted for more than 1.4 million jobs in over 62,000 companies across the European Union. As useful and versatile as plastics are, however, their unchecked disposal on an unprecedented scale is resulting in significant global impacts on wildlife, from marine environment pollution. Microplastics are particularly problematic, and as the life cycle comes full circle, it is feared that they could have adverse impacts on human health too.

Another emerging source of marine microplastics from household wastewater is microfibres from clothing when being washed. Microfibers are 1/100th the diameter of a human hair and are used for better waterproofing, breathability and flexibility in sportswear. The most common types of microfibers are made from polyesters and polyamides, and according to researchers, the number of leaked microfibers in wastewater could be as many as 1900 fibres per garment.

The smallest particles that could be analysed in the new research were 63 microns, roughly the width of a human hair. But much smaller plastic particles exist, and as Hurley said: “It is the really small stuff we get worried about, as they can get through the membranes in the gut and into the bloodstream – that is the real fear.”

Although it is relatively easy to develop policies and bans for microbeads and microfibers, these sources are just a drop in the ocean in terms of tonnage.

Instead, poor land-based waste management practices are seen by the United Nations as the major source of marine microplastics pollution and given the nature of the oceans’ geography, the issue is a global and multifaceted problem. Tests with 83% of samples found to be polluted, show billions of people globally are drinking water contaminated by plastic particles.

The Solution

Because, the facts are so obviously harmful to humanity and are for everyone easily to understand. Just keep in mind; together we the people are producing a lot of unnecessary plastic that is ending up in our ecosystems, and rapidly destroying our environment.

The solution is simple and adequate; boycott all products packed in a single-use plastic enclosing. The next step in this process urgently to be undertaken is the removal of almost all single-use plastic packaging, by only supporting companies that are removing plastic containers.

Take immediately personally the first step by sharing this article with everyone you know. The next best thing to do is to subscribing free of charge to this blog, as on a weekly basis more will be follow.

David