News

By Pedro Campoy López and Alexandre Martínez Schönemann.

The amount of plastic that reaches the marine environment has not stopped increasing and this fact is not new; from the 1950s until now plastic production has grown exponentially, reaching 322 million tons per year currently¹ and collaterally we find the increase of plastic discharges in the sea that is estimated at 4 and 12 million tons per year².

Each year 8 million tons of plastics are thrown into the world's oceans. The smallest, called microplastics, are absorbed by marine organisms. But nobody knows what consequences plastics have for environmental health and also for human health. A team from the University of Vigo coordinates the European project Ephemare, with scientists and institutions from 10 different countries, which seek an answer to this question.

By Sara López Ibáñez

Nowadays, marine ecosystems are under a huge pressure performed by human beings from all over the world. Some of the first causes that are making the degradation and even the disappearance of the habitats happen are, mainly, acts like overfishing, the amount of greenhouse gases, emissions or the excessive generation of aguas residuales, o la generación desmesurada de wastes that end in the sea (80% from land activities).

Microplastics, fragments of plastic lower than 5 mm in size, are found in every environmental compartment, both in terrestrial and marine ecosystems. A research group from Vigo University (Galicia, Spain) led by Prof. Ricardo Beiras are studying the uptake by plankton and transfer into marine food webs, as well as their toxic effects. The in depth knowledge on these issues will be useful also to prevent implications of microplastics on human health.

The program "Equipo de Investigación", of Spanish channel laSexta TV, analyzes the situation of plastic. Prof. Ricardo Beiras and his team participates from the facilities of the ECIMAT.