Welcome to DU!
The truly grassroots left-of-center political community where regular people, not algorithms, drive the discussions and set the standards.
Join the community:
Create a free account
Support DU (and get rid of ads!):
Become a Star Member
Latest Breaking News
General Discussion
The DU Lounge
All Forums
Issue Forums
Culture Forums
Alliance Forums
Region Forums
Support Forums
Help & Search
The sea as a rubbish tip
Biologists prepare guidelines for a more precise investigation into marine pollution from microplastic particlesBremerhaven, 16 April 2012. Large quantities of globally produced plastics end up in the oceans where they represent a growing risk. Above all very small objects, so-called microplastic particles, are endangering the lives of the many sea creatures. An estimate of how greatly the oceans are polluted with microplastic particles has so far failed in the absence of globally comparable methods of investigation and data. Together with British and Chilean colleagues, scientists of the Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research in the Helmholtz Association have now analysed all published studies on this topic and have proposed standardised guidelines for the recording and characterisation of microplastic particles in the sea.
Plastic bottles washed on to the beach are as much a part of the coast as the sound of seagulls. What the eye does not see are the innumerable ultra-small plastic objects which float in the water, are washed on to the beach or settle on the sea bed. Scientists refer to these plastic particles as “microplastic particles“, understanding these to mean plastic objects whose diameter is less than five millimetres – whereby the majority of microplastic particles are smaller than a grain of sand or the tip of a needle. It is this property that also makes them so dangerous to the sea dwellers. “Microplastic particles are swallowed by organisms and absorbed via the digestive tract. It has been possible, for example, to detect them in the tissue of mussels or other animals“, says Dr. Lars Gutow, biologist at the Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research in the Helmholtz Association. Toxic substances also attach to the small particles in the sea which then enter the food chain in this way and may therefore ultimately be dangerous to humans.
Lars Gutow and colleagues from the Universidad Católica del Norte in Chile and the School of Marine Science and Engineering in Plymouth have now jointly addressed the question as to how greatly the oceans of the world are polluted with microplastic particles. The biologists analysed 68 scientific publications on this subject and determined that the results are difficult to compare. “Very different methods were used in these studies which is why it could not be understood whether the observed regional differences in the distribution of the plastic particles are real or whether they are attributable to the methods of recording“, explains Prof. Martin Thiel, initiator of the now published comparative study and scientist at the Universidad Católica del Norte. It emerged that 100,000 times more microplastic particles could be fished out of the water column if a net with a mesh of 85 micrometres was used instead of one with 450 micrometres.
Based on these findings the international team of researchers has now for the first time prepared guidelines for the recording and characterisation of microplastic particles and has published these in the Environmental Science & Technology journal in which the scientists also explain the possible origins of the plastic waste. “Microplastic particles reach the seas in different ways. A large share is accounted for by so-called plastic pellets used as a raw material in the manufacture of plastic products such as computer housings and other everyday articles. If these pellets are handled carelessly, during ship loading for example, many may be blown away by the wind and fall into the sea", explains Lars Gutow.
More: http://www.awi.de/en/news/press_releases/detail/item/microplastics_in_the_marine_environment/?cHash=14eb514eeb38733b438f05e18ede7cf7
7 replies
= new reply since forum marked as read
= new reply since forum marked as read
...we also poison ourselves...
wonder if somewhere someone will create a breakthru to eliminate this stuff without killing everything else in it's wake...
...but a lot of it floats, so I'm guessing decades to centuries. 
