Twenty years have passed since Richard Thompson, director of the International Marine Litter Research Unit at the University of Plymouth in the United Kingdom, first used the term “microplastics” in a study published in Science. That work marked the beginning of a long series of studies, the number of which has now exceeded 7,000. And all of these studies have demonstrated with ever-greater certainty the ubiquitous presence of microplastic pollution — found wherever researchers look, and in quantities that have since doubled. Evidence of accumulation in the most diverse aquatic and marine environments and in over 1,300 living species has been progressively joined by proof of the same phenomena in numerous human organs and tissues — the most recent being the brain, previously thought to be protected by the blood-brain barrier, and just weeks earlier the testes.
The time has come to produce and use far less plastic, starting with the food sector, which is the most problematic in terms of volumes used and type of application.
Read the news here: https://ilfattoalimentare.it/riduzione-plastica-appello-scienziati.html
Source: ilfattoalimentare.it
By: Agnese Codignola
2 October 2024
