Swedish technology finds invisible plastic – New Technology

     Out of the water collected from the yacht Sea Dragon sampler filters out any three particle sizes. The minimum size is 50 microns. Photo: Örebro University, and Pangaea Exploration
     

How much plastic swish around in the Baltic Sea? And what toxins it attracts. Researchers in Örebro has developed sampler which will provide answers.

On Sunday give Anna Kärrman and her colleagues at the University of Örebro out with the sailboat Sea Dragon. For 20 days they sail along the Baltic coast. Everything to survey the extent of micro-plastic in the polluted sea.

The sea water is now likened to a broth where plastic particles are one of the ingredients. The particles are invisible to the naked eye and is so small that runs straight through the treatment plants. Dit is the first with everything from water after washing of fleeces to brushing with toothpaste with plastic bullets. The problem is that the particles are so small that they can be taken up by fish that could be affected by the chemicals in the plastic contains. Additionally, pulls plastic organic contaminants such as dioxin and pcb at risk in aquatic organisms.

Past expeditions have only used planktonnät to trawl for plastic. The network capture plastic particles down to a size of 330 microns. The researchers hope to capture and measure plastic particles with a minimum size of 50 microns. To complete the challenge, Anna Kärrman and her colleagues developed a sampler where different plastic fractions are filtered out with three different filters. Developments have taken place within the EU project Clean Sea. Now tested sampler for the first time in a real situation.

We have with us 100 filter which we will analyze further in the lab, says Anna Kärrman researching on organic contaminants at the heart of Man, Technology and Environment at Örebro University.

The Centre is one of the UN’s three reference laboratories for organic pollutants.

-To us belongs plastic group organic pollutants, she says.

With the board is also an equipment operating at near infrared light (NIR). It is used to separate the plastic from other small particles, such as plankton. Back at the lab then used a hyperspectral camera to see what kind of plastic it is. Polypropylene and polyethylene are some examples.

When the analyzes are settled, waiting next task – to see which organic pollutants (pcb, dioxinder, ddt) bound to the plastic and in what amounts. The researchers will also examine the possible toxicological effects of plastic of the fish caught in the Baltic Sea.

We will include the use of biological methods to do things like watch endocrine disrupting effects, both estrogenic and testosteront.

Does this mean that eating fish also affected?

-We do not know yet. However, if we determine that plastic particles have a negative impact on the marine environment, and we live by it, so it’s inevitable that we will also be affected. Though the manner in which we do not know.

There are scientists do not yet. But before the year is out, the answer to how much plastic that ripples around the Baltic Sea and the size fractions involved.