{"id":894,"date":"2004-05-11T02:57:15","date_gmt":"2004-05-11T02:57:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/agnieszkabiskup.com\/?p=894"},"modified":"2011-05-01T18:32:59","modified_gmt":"2011-05-01T23:32:59","slug":"environment-microscopic-plastic-contaminating-oceans","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/agnieszkabiskup.com\/?p=894","title":{"rendered":"environment: microscopic plastic contaminating oceans"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Plastic trash washing up on the remotest islands  and accumulating on sea floors is, unfortunately, nothing new, but  British researchers have found that even microscopic plastic fibers and  fragments are contaminating ocean waters and sediments. In the May 7  <em>Science,<\/em> Richard Thompson of the UK&#8217;s University of Plymouth and  colleagues report sampling sediments collected from beaches and  estuaries in the northeast Atlantic Ocean. The researchers identified  microscopic fragments of nylon, polyester, acrylic, and other types of  plastic, which they believe come from the breakdown of larger items,  such as clothing, packaging, and rope. Though the researchers  acknowledge that more work is needed to establish the actual  environmental impact of this debris, they also note that marine  organisms, such as barnacles and lugworms, are able to ingest the  microscopic plastic fragments, with unknown consequences to the animals  or food chains. Thompson and colleagues also have found a significant  increase in the presence of plastic fragments compared to samples taken  40 years ago. &#8220;Given the rapid increase in plastic production, the  longevity of plastic, and the disposable nature of plastic items,&#8221; they  wrote, &#8220;this contamination is likely to increase.&#8221; <\/span><\/p>\n<h6><em>This news brief appeared in the Discoveries column of the <\/em>Boston Globe&#8217;s<em> Health\/Science section on 5\/11\/2004.<\/em><\/h6>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Plastic trash washing up on the remotest islands and accumulating on sea floors is, unfortunately, nothing new, but British researchers have found that even microscopic plastic fibers and fragments are contaminating ocean waters and sediments. In the May 7 Science, &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/agnieszkabiskup.com\/?p=894\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13,4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-894","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-boston-globe-3","category-news-briefs"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/agnieszkabiskup.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/894","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/agnieszkabiskup.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/agnieszkabiskup.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/agnieszkabiskup.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/agnieszkabiskup.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=894"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/agnieszkabiskup.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/894\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1054,"href":"https:\/\/agnieszkabiskup.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/894\/revisions\/1054"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/agnieszkabiskup.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=894"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/agnieszkabiskup.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=894"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/agnieszkabiskup.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=894"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}