{"id":80360,"date":"2019-07-12T16:40:11","date_gmt":"2019-07-12T21:40:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/?p=80360"},"modified":"2019-07-12T17:04:24","modified_gmt":"2019-07-12T22:04:24","slug":"the-tiniest-terror-the-unknown-threats-behind-microplastics-and-how-researchers-are-trying-to-stop-them","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/the-tiniest-terror-the-unknown-threats-behind-microplastics-and-how-researchers-are-trying-to-stop-them\/","title":{"rendered":"The Tiniest Terror: The unknown threats behind microplastics, and how researchers are trying to stop them"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Karyn Simpson<\/strong>
\nMedill Reports<\/em><\/p>\n

Two summers ago, Lisa Erdle cast a net from a research vessel on Lake Ontario, dissected the unlucky fish in the boat\u2019s laboratory, and placed each of their guts carefully in jars to be frozen and sent back to her lab in Toronto. <\/p>\n

\u201cYou need a little bit of a strong stomach,\u201d Erdle said of the gory work, but these macabre parcels weren\u2019t the most disturbing product of that trip. It\u2019s what can\u2019t be seen at first glance that is most alarming. <\/p>\n

Back at her lab, University of Toronto Ph.D. candidate Erdle puts her carefully stored fish guts through a chemical digestion process that eats away all the organic matter. It\u2019s then that, through the microscope, she can start to see the tell-tale multicolored signs. <\/p>\n

Plastic. <\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Or, more accurately, microplastic \u2013 miniscule bits of plastic that are most effectively described using words like \u201cteeny\u201d and \u201citsy\u201d but are poised to be the world\u2019s next big regret.<\/p>\n

Why? Because microplastics are everywhere, likely including inside your body by way of Chicago tap water, Great Lakes beer, and internationally sourced salt, according to a study by University of Minnesota School of Public Health Ph.D. candidate Mary Kosuth. And because we don\u2019t know how consuming them will affect us. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe don’t have all the answers for what it does to us when it gets into our bodies, but I think it’s safe to say that most people don’t want to have microplastics in their beer, in their water and in their fish,\u201d Erdle said. \u201cWe\u2019re literally eating our trash.\u201d<\/p>\n

We also don\u2019t know where they come from, specifically. Generally, they come from everywhere \u2013 from pieces of trash and plastic that degrade over time in the Great Lakes, or from your clothes, towels, bedsheets and pillows in the form of microfibers, a subset of microplastic. <\/p>\n

Have you ever seen dust floating in the air in front of your window on a sunny day? Those are most likely microfibers, Erdle and Kosuth both said \u2013 it\u2019s an effective example of something that, at less than 5 millimeters long, you typically need a microscope to see. These synthetic fibers can drift from your clothing and other cloth items though normal use, but they shed en masse every time such articles are washed.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhether it’s, you know, a fleece or anything that has elastic in it, every time you wash those pieces of clothing, teeny little microscopic fibers that are made out of plastic are washing down through your washing machine and out through sewage treatment plants into rivers or the Great Lakes,\u201d said Jennifer Caddick, vice president of communications and engagement at the Alliance for the Great Lakes. \u201cAnd figuring out how to tackle those kinds of issues, I think, is going to be a lot more complex. I don’t know of any easy solutions.\u201d<\/p>\n

A single load of laundry might release upward of 100,000 microfibers, Erdle said. In collaboration with other scientists at the University of Toronto\u2019s Rochman Lab, Erdle released a study in January that compared the effects of different after-market filters that can be put on washing machines to catch microfibers \u2013 similar to the way lint filters on dryers work.<\/p>\n

By washing polyester fleece blankets from Ikea both in a traditional washing machine and in machines equipped with different types of filters, Erdle and her team determined that adding a specific filter (known as a Lint LUV-R) to a washing machine could reduce the number of microfibers being released into wastewater by an average of 87 percent, according to the study, which is titled \u201cCapturing microfibers \u2013 marketed technologies reduce microfiber emissions from washing machines.\u201d<\/p>\n

Unfortunately, without these filters, the 100,000 tiny plastic filaments shed from your clothes are taken with the dirty washwater to the nearest wastewater treatment plant. They\u2019re filtered out here into \u201csludge,\u201d Erdle said, which is the semi-solid, generally organic waste left at the end of the treatment process. This sludge is, in many cases, sanitized and used as fertilizer for local farming operations.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo many of those microfibers probably are captured at the wastewater treatment plant level, but they can still enter the environment,\u201d Erdle said. \u201cIf that sludge is used as a fertilizer, through rain and erosion, those microplastics that are applied onto fields can make their way back into water systems.\u201d<\/p>\n

In fact, Erdle said in her study that more than 96 percent of microfibers can be removed from effluent in the wastewater treatment process, citing a 2005 study by Steve A. Carr, Jin Liu, and Arnold G. Tesoro titled \u201cTransport and fate of microplastic particles in wastewater treatment plants.\u201d While this sounds like a laudable track record, Erdle said that treatment plants often have programs that allow sanitized \u201csludge\u201d to be given or sold to local farms for use as fertilizer or topsoil. When it rains, soil erosion and runoff can take those microscopic fibers that once belonged on your favorite sweater and wash them back into rivers or, ultimately, the Great Lakes, where they end up in the belly of some unsuspecting fish in Erdle\u2019s laboratory.<\/p>\n

The Metropolitan Water Reclamation District of Cook County has a similar program in place for its sludge. On its website, the district advertises a product called \u201cEQ Biosolids,\u201d which they describe as a \u201cproduct of wastewater treatment\u201d that is used as fertilizer for farmland in several neighboring counties and as compost in Chicago. EQ is industry-speak for \u201cexceptional quality,\u201d and the district\u2019s biosolids appear to meet or exceed all the legal health requirements for such fertilizer, according to the data on its website. <\/p>\n

The problem? Microfibers are not included in these regulations. This means treatment plants aren\u2019t looking for them when they test biosolids for other contaminants. And this means that these plastic fibers can end up in the fertilizer made from biosolids, which is then spread across farms and fields. <\/p>\n

\u201cOur wastewater treatment plants are really a modern marvel. They’ve done so much to increase the quality of health of our environment,\u201d said Timothy Hoellein, Ph.D., associate professor at Loyola University and head of the Hoellein Aquatic Ecology Lab. \u201cBut this issue of small plastic particles in the water and in the wastewater is not something that is part of our regulatory framework, so the wastewater treatment plants weren’t designed to treat this material. And there’s no legal obligation for them to do so either.\u201d <\/p>\n

Researchers and engineers at Chicago\u2019s treatment plants want to help improve the water environment, said Guanglong Tian, Ph.D., an environmental scientist at Chicago\u2019s Stickney Water Reclamation Plant. Stickney is the world\u2019s largest water treatment plant, and the campus\u2019 low brick buildings, treatment ponds, and biosolids-testing greenhouse sprawl across the land directly adjacent to a rather sleepy neighborhood in suburban Cicero, Ill. <\/p>\n

These researchers and engineers want to help, but because microplastics aren\u2019t regulated by the federal Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the treatment center doesn\u2019t have the technology or methods necessary to test for or filter them out, Tian said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe main concern for us is pathogens and metals,\u201d Tian said, \u201cand of course the trace organics.\u201d<\/p>\n

The process of getting microplastics covered under federal regulations, the same way that heavy metals and other pollutants in wastewater are regulated, is twofold. Scientists would have to develop tests to accurately measure microplastics on the mass scale required for treatment plants, said John Chavich, assistant director of monitoring and research at Stickney Water Reclamation Plant. But first they would have to prove that these microplastics are worthy of concern \u2013 something Erdle hopes to accomplish with her research.<\/p>\n

\u201cOne of the first steps is you’d have to determine what kind of levels are toxic to the environment,\u201d Chavich said. \u201cSo we would need to know that, and then the EPA could set up a limit for permits, and they’d also select and approve methods that they want labs like us to use to measure it.\u201d<\/p>\n

No testing has yet been done to see if microfibers remain in biosolids from the Stickney plant or any other Metropolitan Water Reclamation District treatment plant, so we don\u2019t fully know if these bits of plastic are at risk for being washed into Lake Michigan when used as fertilizer or field toppers. The district does have regulations prohibiting these fertilizers from being used close to a waterway, Tian said. The safety data sheet for the district\u2019s biosolids recommends users \u201cdo not let product or runoff from product enter drains or water bodies,\u201d and users are required to sign a contact stating that they will not employ biosolids within 10 meters (about 33 feet) of a waterway, Tian said. <\/p>\n

Even if microfibers are in the biosolids, and even if the runoff were to surpass the required 10-meter buffer zone, these fibers may still not be making their way into Lake Michigan, Metropolitan Water Reclamation District Commissioner Debra Shore said. <\/p>\n

\u201cMuch of the storm water runoff in Cook County ends up in the water ways that flow away from the lake and not into the lake,\u201d Shore said, meaning that runoff from biosolids may not contribute to microfiber pollution in Lake Michigan. <\/p>\n

Likewise, the treated wastewater from the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District plants is discharged into waterways like the Des Plaines, the Illinois and the Mississippi, which flow away from Lake Michigan. <\/p>\n

But even if this runoff isn\u2019t directed into Lake Michigan, any microfibers that might be present may still pose a risk for the freshwater ecosystems and fish they do encounter. But why should the average person-who-is-not-a-fish care about microplastic and microfibers turning up in biosolids runoff and in Great Lakes trout, beer, and tap water?<\/p>\n

The biggest concern might be the possibility that the microplastic, once in our digestive system, may leach harmful chemicals into our bodies. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe plastics themselves have additives that could leak from the plastic into the organism that ingests it,\u201d said Mary Kosuth, author of the research article, \u201cAnthropogenic contamination of tap water, beer, and sea salt.\u201d \u201cThere’s been some debate about whether or not it’s a problem because we don’t eat the entire fish, you know. We just eat the meat of the fish \u2013 we’re not eating the digestive tract, then perhaps the exposure’s very low. That’s not the case with something like shellfish, however, where we’re eating the entire organism. It kind of depends on what you’re ingesting.\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u2019s not just fish, though. Kosuth\u2019s study showed that the average adult might consume up to 5,800 microplastic particles a year from only three sources: tap water, Great Lakes beer, and internationally-sourced salt. <\/p>\n

Eighty-eight percent of this comes from tap water, according to Kosuth\u2019s study, which analyzed 159 samples of tap water from 14 countries. <\/p>\n

Three of these samples came from Chicago tap water. While the study didn\u2019t release the city-specific data, it did report that an average of 9.34 particles were found in each liter of water sampled from the U.S.<\/p>\n

Kosuth also sampled twelve brands of beer that was made with water from the Great Lakes. Four of those drew water from Lake Michigan. Particles were found in each sample of beer, meaning that microfibers made it all the way through the beer-making process without being filtered out \u2013 a certain hazard when dealing with plastic particles this size.<\/p>\n

While the numbers of particles found in the beer and water were small \u2013 all clumped together, they still probably wouldn\u2019t look like much, Kosuth said, or even really be visible to human eyes \u2013 we don\u2019t know at what concentration the plastic could begin harming people. <\/p>\n

Researchers know that plastics adsorb chemicals from the environment around them, Kosuth said in her study, meaning while these microplastics and fibers are in the water, they could be taking a sampling of the other chemicals also in the Great Lakes. More than that, though, these chemicals can \u201cdesorb\u201d from the plastic after they\u2019re ingested, Kosuth wrote, meaning the chemicals can leave the plastic and enter the gut of whatever fish or human ingested them.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s also a risk that these toxins might grow more concentrated as they move through the food chain, as a fish is eaten by a bigger fish is eaten by a human, for example.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe know that plastic is starting to sort of accumulate up through the food chain,\u201d Caddick said. \u201cBut we also know that those tiny pieces of plastic can sort of accumulate toxins, so toxins in the water can get attached to plastic. So there are concerns about whether or not any toxins can sort of accumulate through the food chain as well.\u201d<\/p>\n

While some scientists are worried about these possible effects, there hasn\u2019t been any conclusive research saying that consuming these nearly invisible bits of plastic is harmful. But on the other hand, there also hasn\u2019t been conclusive research proving that doing so is harmless.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe want to make sure that we\u2019re not being alarmist about this,\u201d Hoellein said. \u201cI understand that a lot of people, when they hear about the possibility, are worried, and they’re worried about not only the fish, but their own health if they’re eating the fish. That is a justifiable concern, and I don’t want anyone to feel like they have to jump to conclusions or panic or anything. We’re wondering the same questions, and we’ll try to figure out the answer.\u201d<\/p>\n

There has been substantial research on the effects of plastic consumption in ocean fish, Hoellein said, but the same research in freshwater fish is lagging behind. While it\u2019s true that there may be no effect, Hoellein said there may be subtle consequences from plastic ingestion that could pose a threat \u2013 a possibility that Erdle is exploring in her research with hopes that conclusive results could lead to future regulations.<\/p>\n

Most of the microplastic Erdle finds in her fishes\u2019 stomachs are microfibers.<\/p>\n

While there isn\u2019t much current research on the effects of consuming microfibers specifically, which also made up 98.3 percent of the plastic collected in Kosuth\u2019s 2018 study, Erdle said that studies about the effects of microplastic in fish can be extrapolated to predict some of the dangers of microfiber ingestion. <\/p>\n

For example, as with general microplastics, these effects can be either physical or chemical, Erdle said. For fish, she explained, eating microplastics may cause abrasions on the inside of fishes\u2019 digestive tracts, cause blockages in their intestines, or cause them to suffer from malnutrition because they are eating plastic \u2013 with no nutrients or calories \u2013 instead of food. The human equivalent might be munching on cardboard. <\/p>\n

It\u2019s the chemical effects, though, that may have a greater risk of relatability to people. And it\u2019s in these effects, Erdle cautioned, that microfibers might harbor unique threats.<\/p>\n

For example, microfibers have ingredients inside the fibers themselves, Erdle said. This could include fabric dyes or additives that make textiles soft, water-resistant, or fire-retardant \u2013 which are made of chemicals that could be harmful if released inside your body. Textiles, which shed microfibers, also pick up contaminants from the air around them.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat sweater that you’re wearing, it can do that,\u201d Erdle said. \u201cIt can pick up chemicals from the environment and act as sort of a passive sampler, and it also might have chemicals that were just in it when it was made\u2026So there’s a lot of chemicals in the manufacturing process and then also chemicals that can interact with the textiles or an item when you’re just in the world in polluted places.\u201d<\/p>\n

To get concrete evidence about the potential effects of consuming microfibers on both humans and fish, Erdle is deep-diving into her research \u2013 fish guts, multi-colored plastic and all. <\/p>\n

Erdle\u2019s research is split into two sections: the first, where she studies the stomach contents of wild-caught Rainbow and Lake Trout from Lake Ontario and Lake Huron, confirms that there are microplastics and microfibers in the lake and that the fish are eating them. The second section is meant to begin to address the question of what happens when organisms consume microfibers.<\/p>\n

To do this, Erdle has set up a controlled, in-lab experiment using only lab-reared fish \u2013 fish that were born and raised in the lab and therefore have not been exposed to the myriad unknown pollutants that wild-caught fish encounter in the Great Lakes. She feeds some of the test fish regular fish food, while she feeds another group fish food laced with microplastics. The goal is to study the fishes\u2019 reactions when exposed to plastics for different time periods and at different life stages to help uncover any potential dangers of microfiber and microplastic consumption. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe’re doing it all with the same concentrations that fish might be exposed to in the wild in a very controlled way to see what some of the effects will be,\u201d Erdle said. \u201cBecause when we catch fish from the wild, even if they have lacerations in their stomach or they have chemicals in their blood, we don’t know whether or not those came from plastics or from other things they may be exposed to in the Great Lakes.\u201d<\/p>\n

While trying to figure out how these plastic particles might affect us seems paramount, there\u2019s also the environmental impacts to consider. Regardless of intention, we\u2019re peppering the Great Lakes with microfibers and microplastics, and the fish are taking it for food.<\/p>\n

The Alliance for the Great Lakes partnered with the Shedd Aquarium to do several educational trips onto Lake Michigan last summer, Caddick said. On these trips, they compared real-time water samples from the lake to known \u201cclean\u201d water samples. What was most surprising, Caddick said, was that the phytoplankton and algae \u2013 a mealtime favorite for fish in Lake Michigan \u2013 from the clean sample looked almost identical to the microplastic in the sample from the lake. <\/p>\n

\u201cAnimals mistake those tiny plastic pieces for food,\u201d Caddick said. \u201cThey think, ‘Oh hey, here’s another bit of algae or phytoplankton that I’m supposed to be eating.’\u201d<\/p>\n

Erdle had a similar experience when she worked on a sailboat on the Great Lakes teaching students about water ecology.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe looked at zooplankton and phytoplankton, and mixed in with the plankton there were these tiny microplastic particles,\u201d Erdle said. \u201cIt really surprised me that there were small pieces of plastic sort of mixed in with all of the phytoplankton and zooplankton.\u201d<\/p>\n

Shortly thereafter, she decided to study the topic in depth for her Ph.D. The hope, Erdle said, is that her research will provide the verifiable information about effects of microplastics and microfibers necessary to influence policy changes that would reduce microplastic pollution. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe hope that some of this research can help inform policies,\u201d Erdle said, \u201cbecause we know that microfibers are really common in the environment, but we don’t have many studies that point to what the specific effects could be. And once we have that information, we can hopefully draft policy.\u201d<\/p>\n

She wants to see the filters, which were proven successful in her last paper and are now being tested on the community level in Perry Sound, make their way to pre-market manufacturing, meaning they would come installed in washing machines the same way lint filters come installed in dryers. <\/p>\n

She hopes to complete her current project (yes, the one with the fish guts) sometime next year. <\/p>\n

While policy change isn\u2019t as simple as just installing filters, Erdle seems on the right track. Microplastic pollution in the Great Lakes is as varied as its multitude of sources, and Erdle, Hoellein and Tian all agree that the most immediate solution is to control the original source. <\/p>\n

\u201cIn many cases, the wastewater treatment plant operators would say to us, ‘If people don’t want this material to come to the wastewater treatment plant, they shouldn’t flush it down the drain,’\u201d Hoellein said. \u201cAnd it makes a lot of sense. They’re generally saying that the real solution is prevention; it’s not a clean-up.\u201d<\/p>\n

Prevention isn\u2019t simple, though. Chicago alone releases an estimated 2,850 metric tons \u2013 just over 6 million pounds \u2013 of plastic into the Great Lakes every year, according to a study by Matthew J. Hoffman and Eric Hittinger titled \u201cInventory and transport of plastic debris in the Laurentian Great Lakes.\u201d This plastic, which could look like anything from the water bottle that blew away from your picnic table to a shred of a plastic grocery bag, slowly breaks down in the Great Lakes, becoming \u2013 you guessed it \u2013 microplastic. <\/p>\n

Movements to regulate this kind of plastic \u2013 and, subsequently, microplastic \u2013 pollution have popped up across the country in the form of bans on plastic drinking straws and plastic bags. These sorts of bans might be a gesture in the right direction, but they aren\u2019t the end-all-be-all for curbing microplastic pollution, and policy-makers need to weigh the positive and negative effects of these regulations, Caddick said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt’s so important, as we think about these policy solutions, to really think carefully and include a lot of different people in the conversation,\u201d Caddick said.<\/p>\n

Banning straws likely isn\u2019t going to make the biggest impact on plastic pollution, Caddick said, and doing so would make life significantly harder for people with certain disabilities.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn the disability community, there’s a lot of folks who depend on single-use plastic straws in order to be able to drink \u2013 sometimes it’s to drink in a dignified way, but sometimes it’s to drink at all, to take any kinds of fluids that’s needed,\u201d said Adam Ballard, advocacy manager for Access Living, a disability advocacy group.<\/p>\n

Some people with disabilities have a strong bite reflex, Ballard said, or produce a lot of saliva, meaning that metal or paper straw alternatives can be ineffective or even dangerous, and banning plastic straws could mean that some people in this community would no longer be able to drink outside of their homes. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe know that straw bans, for instance, really aren’t going to have the biggest – kind of, bang for the buck, as far as keeping plastic pollution out of the Great Lakes,\u201d Caddick said. \u201cBut straws are also really important to many people with disabilities.\u201d<\/p>\n

Focusing on banning or decreasing use of other single-use plastics could be less damaging to members of our community, while also making a bigger impact. <\/p>\n

\u201cEven other single-use plastic items like packaging,\u201d Ballard said. \u201cIf we can go after that, we’ll make a bigger impact, too. It’s not just about making accommodations for our community, it’s also about having a bigger impact if we go after other sources first\u2026The message is please, please listen closely to what we’re saying and believe us. A lot of us, most of us, we care about the issue, but we also care about being able to drink. Take the time to listen to us.\u201d<\/p>\n

Major policy reform \u2013 the kind that would help Erdle see less microplastic in the guts of the fish under her microscope \u2013 will take time. It will follow the science, which is still in the process of trying to answer the questions of how this affects us and the Great Lakes\u2019 ecosystems. One thing, though, is certain: Any future policies that aim to curb plastic and microplastic pollution should be informed by the science \u2013 what will make the biggest impact \u2013 as well as the needs of our community. <\/p>\n

Photo at top: Plastic pollution is prevalent on the beaches of the Great Lakes and oceans alike. (Photo Credit: Pixabay)<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Karyn Simpson Medill Reports Two summers ago, Lisa Erdle cast a net from a research vessel on Lake Ontario, dissected the unlucky fish in the boat\u2019s laboratory, and placed each of their guts carefully in jars to be frozen and sent back to her lab in Toronto. \u201cYou need a little bit of a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":515,"featured_media":80361,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4741],"tags":[192],"class_list":["post-80360","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-spring-2019","tag-promo"],"yoast_head":"\nThe Tiniest Terror: The unknown threats behind microplastics, and how researchers are trying to stop them - Medill Reports Chicago<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/the-tiniest-terror-the-unknown-threats-behind-microplastics-and-how-researchers-are-trying-to-stop-them\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Tiniest Terror: The unknown threats behind microplastics, and how researchers are trying to stop them - 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