Researchers working to understand microplastic pollution in Lake Champlain have sounded alarm bells about the ubiquity of the problem.
What's happening?
The team — from the State University of New York Plattsburgh, the University of Vermont, and the Lake Champlain Sea Grant program — is spending the summer collecting sand and analyzing the waste materials found in it, as Vermont Public reported.
The goal is to find the source of the plastic that is commonly found in fishing nets and in 15 species of fish that humans eat. It's also in wastewater effluent and on beaches, such as North Beach in Burlington.
"It's just everywhere you look, once you start looking," Anne Jefferson of UVM told Vermont Public. "Our students find something on every transect on every beach — no matter how pristine it looks. We find plastic everywhere."
Why is this concerning?
Microplastics are 5 millimeters or smaller, but they come from larger pieces of plastic, which don't biodegrade but do break up into smaller and smaller fragments. Humans manufacture, use, and trash so much plastic that it's been found everywhere on Earth, including in our bodies.
"Big plastics break apart and become small plastics and eventually microplastics," Jefferson said. "So that single pool noodle could literally become millions of particles of microplastics."
Other research indicates that microplastics, which are often made with toxic chemicals, harm human health, with links to cancer, pregnancy issues, and dementia, among other serious issues. Vermont Public noted that they disrupt the nervous and endocrine systems and raise the risk of heart attack and stroke.
"The key thing is that we need to stop the microplastics before they get into the environment," Jefferson said. "And that means either dealing with the industrial sources or dealing with the macroplastics — the bigger things."
What's being done about microplastics?
The researchers are hopeful that their work will uncover information about the microplastics and where they're coming from.
Then, the key is to cut off those sources. Individuals can prevent microplastic pollution by avoiding bottled water and plastic food packaging. You can also help by bringing your own to-go containers to restaurants.
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Definitely 👍 Synthetic clothing is another source, which is why it's important to check the label on the clothing items you want to buy.
Meanwhile, Vermont Public noted Vermont banned dock foam last year.
"National policy is also critical: [SUNY Plattsburgh professor Danielle] Garneau said she's finding fewer plastic microbeads in the lake since those were banned federally from consumer goods in 2015 — a push she said started with local legislation in New York state," the outlet reported. "Vermont passed a similar law in 2015."
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