Studies have recently detected microplastics in human lungs and blood, and previous research shows humans ingest and inhale many microplastics even at home. In 2020, scientists uncovered microplastics in human organs for the first time. Now, researchers are making sense of how microplastics that are ingested can make their way from the gut to other […]
The EU has drafted rules that will require companies linked to microplastic pollution to partially pay for cleanup. Companies will have to pay at least 80% of microplastic recovery costs, while the government will subsidize the rest. The proposed plan identifies specific industries that would need to help pay for the cleanup, also known as […]
A new study using model predictions has uncovered a likely rapid accumulation of microplastics around Santa Cruz Island, an island in the Galápagos National Park of Ecuador. The model predictions point to an accumulation of plastics sized from 1 micron to less than 5 millimeters in waters around the human-populated island. The researchers behind the […]
Microplastics are tiny plastic particles from textiles and other sources that have broken down into smaller and smaller pieces until they are less than five millimeters in length. They have been found all over the world, from sediments in the deep ocean to Arctic snow. Scientists have found that microplastics are being released though natural […]
Microplastics are so pervasive, they have been found all over the planet and in the human body. A new study has found that a liter of bottled water contains an average of approximately 240,000 detectable plastic fragments, which is 10 to 100 times more than earlier estimates, a press release from Columbia Climate School said. […]
Researchers completing the first dive survey of Lake Tahoe have found an accumulation of plastic litter in a small section of the lake. Lake Tahoe, which lies on the border of California and Nevada, is the 10th deepest lake in the world. Last year, researchers from the Desert Research Institute and University of California Davis […]
Microplastics — tiny fragments of plastic products and industrial waste — are now so pervasive in Earth’s environment that they are found everywhere from the highest mountain peaks to the deepest parts of the ocean. According to a new report, all aquatic species in the mouths of rivers that flow into the Atlantic Ocean and […]
A group of environmental organizations has produced the Global Plastic Laws Database, which is launching ahead of the next round of the United Nations Plastic Treaty negotiations in November. The Global Plastic Laws Database will track plastic-related legislation around the world and allow researchers to study laws relating to all cycles of plastic production and […]
Microplastics are everywhere. They have been found inside fish at the bottom of the ocean, in the Pyrenees mountains and on Arctic sea ice, but how they are transported remains largely a mystery. A new study by Japanese researchers has confirmed the presence of microplastics in clouds, where they are likely to be having effects […]