With our ever increasing knowledge about microbeads, I
wondered what is typically found in terms of volume in our rivers? Much of our
discovery this term has centered on what has been found entering much larger
waterways, such as the Great Lakes. So my search led me to the Saint Lawrence river, which serves as the primary drainage for the Great Lakes. It is also a
part of the international boundary between Ontario Canada and the state of New
York.
In their research, graduate students and professors from
McGill University as well as the Quebec government collected sediment from
various locations along the river and found an incredible amount of microbeads
within those sediment samples. These samples were then sifted and the
microbeads were separated, sorted and counted. The article documents that at
some locations over 1000 microbeads per liter of sediment were found, According
to associate professor and biologist Anthony Ricciardi, the amount was: "a
magnitude that rivals the worlds most contaminated ocean sediments."
The researchers have also spent some time dissecting fish
that feed along the river bed looking for microbeads inside as they concluded:
"if they build up in large enough numbers as they appear to be, they can
more easily enter the food chain,"(Ricciardi).
The Quebec Green party is hoping that support for Banning
microbeads in the United States will give them the legislative support that
they need to follow suit in
Canada.http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/montreal/plastic-microbeads-polluting-st-lawrence-river-mcgill-researchers-find-1.2779096
No comments:
Post a Comment