Microplastics – Three items

  1. EAC committee
  2. Research project
  3. MCS & Greenpeace petition

1.  Environmental Audit Committee (EAC): Minister questioned on the environmental impact of microplastics

This is the fourth oral evidence session in the Committee’s inquiry into the environmental impact of microplastics. The session will cover the Government’s position on the issue of microbeads and the consequences to microplastic pollution in the marine environment. It will also cover possible solutions to the scale and problem of microplastic pollution.

with the following witnesses: 

  • George Eustice MP, Minister of State for Farming, Food and the Marine Environment, DEFRA
  • Dr Gemma Harper, Deputy Director for Marine and Chief Social Scientist, DEFRA
  • Thomas Maes, National & International Monitoring Programmes Co-ordinator, Centre for Environment Fisheries and Aquaculture Science 

2.  Research into nanoparticles on zooplankton Not very many studies have been done on this topic before. Plastic particles of such a small size are difficult to study,” says Karin Mattsson. “We tested how polystyrene plastic particles of different sizes, charge and surface affect the zooplankton Daphnia. It turned out that the size of the nanoparticles that were most toxic to the Daphnia in our study was 50 nanometers,” says Karin Mattsson. Because zooplankton like Daphnia are also food for many other aquatic animals, the researchers wanted to study the effect of plastic particles higher up in the food chain. They found that fish that ate Daphnia containing nanoplastics experienced a change in their predatory behavior and poor appetite. In several studies, researchers also discovered that the nanoparticles had the ability to cross biological barriers, such as the intestinal wall and brain. “Although in our study we used much larger amounts of nanoplastic than those present in oceans today, we suspect that plastic particles may be accumulated inside the fish. This means that even low doses could ultimately have a negative effect,” says Karin Mattsson. Plastic breaks down very slowly in nature, and once the microscopically small plastic particles reach lakes and oceans they are difficult to remove. Plastic particles also bind environmental toxins that can become part of the food chain when consumed accidentally. Click here to read more.

3.  Microbead petition – MCS & Greenpeace 

MCS 8th June 2016: We delivered over 312,000 petition signatures to Number 10 in June 8th, World Oceans Day, today, calling on the Prime Minister to ban the toxic microplastic particles known as microbeads. Found in products such as facial scrubs and toothpaste, millions of the tiny plastics are flushed unwittingly, into the world’s oceans every year where they ultimately end up in the marine food chain. A report published last week found that the ocean’s fish are becoming smaller due to the effects of eating microplastics.   The long list of names were presented at Number 10 by Dr Sue Kinsey and Ros Finney, of the Marine Conservation Society together with Greenpeace UK, the Environmental investigation Agency (EIA), Fauna & Flora International (FFI).

Microbeads were banned by President Obama in the US last year and the UK government has already referred to the tiny plastics as a “very serious” problem for the marine habitat, saying it would support a ban in principle. An estimated 8 million tonnes of plastics are estimated to end up in the oceans every year. A recent report commissioned by the UN showed that microplastics are an increasing threat to human health.   For more information about microplastics, see the Scrub it Out webpages. Click here for more information.

No Comment

Comments are closed.