Microplastics are everywhere. These tiny plastic debris can be found throughout the ocean, infiltrating animals, the food we eat, and even our children.Its spread extends from the highest peak in the world to the very beginning of life. Even the remoteness of Earth's polar regions has no shelter from the storm, and new research helps explain where the vast majority of tiny plastic waste comes from.In a new study led by Peter Ross, an ocean pollution researcher at the Ocean Wise Conservation Association in Canada, scientists analyzed the distribution of microplastics in the Arctic Ocean by sampling 71 near-surface seawater contaminants across the continent. Europe and North America Including the North Pole
In addition to the near-surface sampling - the
slotxo microplastic collection at a depth of 3 to 8 meters (10 to 26 feet), the researchers sampled at much lower depths in the Beaufort Sea in northern Alaska. And Canada by collecting microplastics at low depths. In the water column is 1,015 m (3,330 ft).While it is well known that microplastics have infiltrated some of the most distant sites on the planet, But the mechanisms underlying the distribution and magnitude of the contamination are unclear, the researchers said.Here, the team used a Fourier infrared spectrometer to confirm an average of 40 microplastic particles per cubic meter of seawater, most of which are microplastic fibers (92.3 percent), nearly three quarters (73.3 percent). Percent) is polyester.
But that's not all Particle abundance is related to longitude, with nearly three times more particles in the eastern Arctic compared to the west," the researchers wrote in the paper and in terms of polyester pollution. "East-to-West transition in the signature infrared [score] to potential fiber erosion at source.In short, the researchers think polyester fibers were transported to the eastern Arctic from the Atlantic Ocean, and possibly via atmospheric transport from the south, breaking into smaller pieces as it degraded and moved to the western Arctic.The team points out that the culprits are textile fibers in domestic wastewater, with polyester and synthetic fibers being removed from garments when washed before they pass through waterways to transport contaminants to the ocean.According to researchers' estimates, a single garment can release millions of fibers during typical home washing, and sewage plants can release more than 20 billion microfibers a year.
The author explains that "These estimates are based on reports of many microfiber fabrics shed from various textiles in home laundry and the dominance of synthetic microfibers in municipal wastewater," the authors explain.While additional inventories will undoubtedly increase the attribution of the Arctic County MPs. Rather, we recommend that combined past European, American and Asian wastewater discharges and further scientific scrutiny As Ross explains in a video from 2018, we need to track where the microscopic plastic pollution comes from if we have a chance to stop this deadly threat.The more we looked for microplastics in our environmental example, the more we realized… we were in the category of plastic dust," Ross said.
