Microscopic plastic debris from washing clothes is accumulating in the marine environment and could be entering the food chain, a study has warned.<\/p>\n
The findings appeared in the journal Environmental Science and Technology<\/a>.<\/p>\n Dr Browne, a member of the US-based research network National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis<\/a>, said the tiny plastic was a concern because evidence showed that it was making its way into the food chain.<\/p>\n “Once the plastics had been eaten, it transferred from [the animals’] stomachs to their circulation system and actually accumulated in their cells,” he told BBC News.<\/a><\/p>\n In order to identify how widespread the presence of microplastic was on shorelines, the team took samples from 18 beaches around the globe, including the UK, India and Singapore.<\/p>\n “We found that there was no sample from around the world that did not contain pieces of microplastic.”<\/p>\n The main plastics are polyester, acrylic and polyamides (nylon).\u00a0 Professor Richard Thompson from the University of Plymouth, UK<\/a> carried out a number of experiments to see what fibres were contained in the water discharge from washing machines. “It suggests to us that a large proportion of the fibres we were finding in the environment, in the strongest evidence yet, was derived from the sewerage as a consequence from washing clothes.”<\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Microscopic plastic debris from washing clothes is accumulating in the marine environment and could be entering the food chain, a study has warned. The findings appeared in the journal Environmental Science and Technology. Dr Browne, a member of the US-based research network National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis, said the tiny plastic was a …
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