WC133 NovDec 2023 - Magazine - Page 22
FRESHWATER
It’s About Time
The time for a Great Lakes microplastics risk
management strategy is now
BY SUMEEP BATH
While marine
ecosystems have
been the primary
focus of both rhetoric
and research, there
is now an increasing
recognition of the
need to focus on the
potential for plastic
to invade freshwater
systems—the very ones
from which we rely on
for our drinking water
and that are home to
diverse wildlife.
LASTICS’ ROLE AS A POLLUTANT and a threat to
environmental and human health has certainly captured the
public’s imagination in recent years—from globally viewed
BBC documentaries to viral social media posts depicting
marine wildlife entangled in discarded waste.
While marine ecosystems have been the primary focus of both
rhetoric and research, there is now an increasing recognition of
the need to focus on the potential for plastic to invade freshwater
systems—the very ones from which we rely on for our drinking
water and that are home to diverse wildlife.
A group of researchers at the Rochman Lab at the University of
Toronto, led by students Hayley McIlwraith and Eden Hataley, in
collaboration with IISD Experimental Lakes Area, sought to fill
this research gap. By analyzing microplastic concentrations (plastic
particles less than 5 mm in size) in samples taken from the Laurentian Great Lakes over the last ten years, they were able to break
down the work into two significant studies.
P
Surprising findings
In the first study, the research team sought to understand the
distribution, quantity, and types of microplastic pollution in the
Great Lakes, as well as the methods researchers typically use for
measurement.
Existing research efforts clearly show that microplastics are pervasive throughout the Great Lakes and associated rivers, and has
been found, not only in the water itself, but also in sediment and
wildlife (including different species of fish, birds, and mussels).
Generally speaking, levels of microplastics in the Great Lakes are
variable, but where concentrations are high, in tributaries leading
to the lakes or around major cities like Toronto and Chicago, they
rival or even exceed those in oceans.
Sumeep Bath
Getty Images
Sumeep Bath is the editorial and
communications manager for
IISD Experimental Lakes Area
22
WATER C AN ADA • NOV EMBER/ DECEMBER 2023
