2023-12-16 22:04:30
MONTREAL — Hurricane Larry dumped millions of microplastic particles on Newfoundland and Labrador during its passage in 2021 ― microplastics that all came from the Atlantic Ocean, researchers at Dalhousie University found.
“Sometimes they say it’s pouring with rain,” said Professor Tony Walker. We can now say that it’s raining ropes and microplastics.”
Larry’s arrival represented a unique opportunity for researchers that they were not going to miss, since the hurricane never flew over land between the time of its birth off the western coast of Africa and the time of his arrival in Canada.
On the other hand, he flew over the garbage vortex (garbage patch, in English) of the North Atlantic where thousands of tonnes of rubbish accumulate. It was therefore obvious that all these microplastics would, if at all, come from the Atlantic Ocean.
As soon as the path of the storm became clear, two students, Anna Ryan and Amber LeBlanc, organized themselves in a hurry to collect Larry’s rain in a cylindrical glass container (to avoid any risk of contamination). .
The hurricane made landfall near Great Bona Cove as a Category 1 hurricane on September 11, 2021, with winds of 80 miles per hour and gusts over 110 miles per hour.
The researchers collected samples between September 9 and 12. A new sample was taken every six hours, for a total of eleven samples.
The cylinder installed by the two researchers collected, on average, around 20,000 microplastic particles per square meter per day before and after Larry’s visit. But at the height of the storm, that figure jumped to nearly 115,000 particles per square meter per day.
Again, because of Larry’s trajectory and all the precautions the researchers took, “these microplastics could only have come from the waste vortex and not from North America,” Professor Walker said.
When we consider that the area of Newfoundland and Labrador is approximately 405,000 square kilometers, these approximately 115,000 microplastic particles per square meter per day represent an astronomical amount of pollution.
Health and environmental risks
Microplastic particles are less than five millimeters long. They are usually so small that they are impossible to discern with the naked eye. They come from the degradation of other, larger plastic products and have been detected in every environment on the planet.
The risk they pose to the health of humans, animals and ecosystems remains poorly understood. The researchers point out, for example, that these particles are small enough to contaminate groundwater which is a source of drinking water for thousands of people.
Additionally, the study authors write, “because of their small size and because they are already airborne, microplastics can enter organisms, including humans, through respiration. , which has health consequences that are still largely unknown.”
“I think it’s important for the public to understand that microplastic pollution is everywhere,” Professor Walker said. We can then put pressure on decision-makers to take the necessary measures to reduce plastic pollution.”
The conclusions of this study were published by the prestigious scientific journal Nature.
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