Environmental Awareness
Since the 1970’s, environmental awareness has increased as we have begun to understand the direct correlation between our lifestyle practices and the health of our environment. In turn, human beings began studies to understand the correlation between the environment and our own health! One of the fastest growing areas of focus in this category is microplastics, and conducting microplastic testing in our surrounding environments
What Are Microplastics?
Microplastics are pieces of plastic which have been broken down so far that the naked human eye can no longer perceive them. These plastics are broken down from sunlight, wind, and waves. As plastics break down and become microplastics they take on multiple different forms. Fibers, films, and fragments are the most common form in Tampa Bay, but microplastics may take the form of microbeads, pellets, and foams.
How Do Microplastics Affect The Environment?
Microplastics negatively affect our environment in a variety of ways. Here in Florida, one of our greatest concerns is the ingestion of microplastics by marine animals. Microplastics often make their way into the food chain starting at the lowest levels. Worms ingest microplastics in the soil while shrimp ingest microplastics floating near the top of the water. When fish eat shrimp, all the microplastics collected in the shrimp enter the system of the fish. Bigger fish will then eat the smaller fish that ate the shrimp, birds will eat the bigger fish, and so forth. This cumulation of the pollutant up the food chain is known as biomagnification and results in those at the top, including humans, collecting the most amount of pollutants within our bodies. As humans are part of the environment, we are not disconnected from this phenomenon!
How Do Microplastics Affect Humans?
While the health effects of microplastics on humans are still being closely studied and debated by scientists and medical professionals, we have begun to better understand the potential ways that our health could be adversely affected. The most concrete way we understand microplastics affect us is by binding to harmful pollutants and creating a vector which transfers these pollutants into our bodies. Potential adverse effects from ingestion of microplastics are chronic inflammation, cell damage, and cell death. Thankfully, currently there is no conclusive evidence that microplastics cause cancer or any serious health effects in the human body. However, research is ongoing and new studies are being commissioned all of the time.
How Is Ecomersion Kayaks Involved in Microplastic Studies?
Ecomersion has teamed up with local St.Pete non-profit Keep Pinellas Beautiful to conduct microplastic testing at Weedon Island Preserve. By filtering the collected water through a filter paper, we are able to count the amount of microplastics within a liter of surface water. After taking multiple samples from various points around Weedon Island we are able to build a more complete picture of the average amount of microplastics per liter in the water at Weedon Island. The collected data is entered into FMAP (Florida Microplastic Awareness Project) run by The University of Florida, and added to a Florida wide microplastics census. Testing the water at Weedon Island enables us to do our part in contributing data to real time scientific research!
