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. 2015 May 5;112(18):5547-9.
doi: 10.1073/pnas.1504135112.

News feature: Microplastics present pollution puzzle

Alla Katsnelson

News feature: Microplastics present pollution puzzle

Alla Katsnelson. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. .

Erratum in

No abstract available

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Figures

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Polyethylene beads such as these, extracted from a cosmetic product and shown in an electron micrograph, tend to pass through sewage treatment plants and end up in natural waters. Image courtesy of Adil Bakir and Richard Thompson (Plymouth University, United Kingdom).
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Microplastic particles (yellow) can cross from the digestive system into the blood cells (green) of mussels. Image courtesy of Mark Browne (University of New South Wales, Australia).
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A surface trawl in the middle of the South Atlantic Gyre picks up plankton, shells, and bits of plastic. Image courtesy of Stiv Wilson (The Story of Stuff Project).
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Browne MA, et al. Accumulation of microplastic on shorelines woldwide: Sources and sinks. Environ Sci Technol. 2011;45(21):9175–9179. - PubMed
    1. Secretariat of the Convention on Biological Diversity and the Scientific and Technical Advisory Panel—GEF (2012). Impacts of Marine Debris on Biodiversity: Current Status and Potential Solutions (Secretariat of the Convention on Biological Diversity, Montreal), Technical Series No. 67.
    1. Jambeck JR, et al. Marine pollution. Plastic waste inputs from land into the ocean. Science. 2015;347(6223):768–771. - PubMed
    1. Eriksen M, et al. Plastic pollution in the world’s oceans: More than 5 trillion plastic pieces weighing over 250,000 tons afloat at sea. PLoS ONE. 2014;9(12):e111913. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Law KL, et al. Distribution of surface plastic debris in the eastern Pacific Ocean from an 11-year data set. Environ Sci Technol. 2014;48(9):4732–4738. - PubMed

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