U C Santa Barbara’s Mark Browne has made some disturbing discoveries that give a whole new meaning to “it will all come out in the wash.” While plastic bags and bottles clog our rivers and streams and form garbage dumps in the ocean, strangling marine life and wreaking havoc with the food chain, Browne, a post-doctorate fellow with UCSB’s National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis, has discovered the real villain in ocean-polluting plastics is our clothes. That’s right, the button-down collared shirt featured in fall fashion guides, the board shorts seen at Leadbetter Beach and the little black miniskirt—any clothing made with polyester or polyurethane—are all devastating the environment and killing ocean life. “We’re wearing it,” says Browne in a clipped British accent, pinching the sleeve of his shirt for emphasis. “Every time we wash our clothes, we are contributing to the most abundant form of toxic plastic water pollution on the planet.“ According to Browne, our clothes are shedding tons of harmful microfibers into the ocean. “We measured 18 ocean sites worldwide over a four-year span, testing hundreds of water samples and found an overwhelming quantitative abundance of polluting toxic microplastic fibers from clothing in the sea,” Browne says. “There’s a lot, lot more particles of microplastic pollution from clothing than any other forms of plastic refuse.” Browne’s study determined these microplastic fibers shed from washing our clothes are the greatest source of plastic debris fouling our oceans, rivers and lakes. We’re sitting on a wooden bench near Alameda Park in downtown Santa Barbara. “We need to educate the public. When you go out to the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, the density of these microplastic fibers is more abundant in the water than any other form of plastic pollution,” says Browne, his usual stoicism giving way to righteous indignation as a golden August afternoon turns to the pink and purple pastels of dusk. “We need the public to wake up, so we can get something done.” Every time we wash our clothes, we are contributing to the most abundant form of toxic plastic water pollution on the planet. Browne’s next stop is a yoga class at Santa Barbara Yoga Center—the man is serious about sustainability. Browne’s keen interest in marine life started with a childhood spent especially attuned to the streams and rivers around his hometown, the industrial port city of Bristol in southwest England. “The River Avon estuary was always murky and muddy, and I was fascinated by what was in the dirty water,” he says. His introduction to the sea came with family trips to the coast. “I remember fetching a pail of seawater to build a sandcastle on the seacoast of Cornwall and wondering what was in the sea,” he says. Browne’s civil lawyer father and chef mother would also pack up the family for trips across the English Channel to the continent. “We would load up the car take the ferry and drive across France, Germany and Belgium. We explored a lot of coastline,“ says Browne. The main inspiration for Browne’s interest in a clean ocean environment, however, is his mother. “My mum was diagnosed with cancer when I was 9, and her doctor advised she eat food that had fewer chemicals,” Browne recalls. “It made me realize the importance of using scientific information to make better decisions for our health.” The microplastic fibers Browne has been studying pose a particularly insidious problem. “We can inhale these small plastic fibers in and out of the water,” says Browne. “It’s really quite worrying how easily these toxic fibers can enter the human food chain. Often sewage sludge containing these harmful microplastic fibers is put on crops that are fed to farm animals or used in fertilizers to grow fruits and vegetables. Cattle and other livestock eat these tiny bits of micro-toxic plastic in the feed grain, and those toxic plastic particles enter the human food chain when we buy the food at the market. “When scientists look at lung tissue from people who have had cancer and those who haven’t, they find there are more of these microplastic fibers in cancerous tissue than in healthy tissue,” Browne continues. “Wild animals also feed on these crops and use the farmland as their home. Making these animals ill further upsets the food chain and the equilibrium of nature. This fibrous microplastic pollution could be the toxic pill in our seas as a means by which these chemicals enter the human food chain. This is something everyone should care about and it‘s not going away.” Oddly, the problem was only recently discovered, hiding in plain sight. U p until 2004, marine scientists researching sewage discharge in our oceans, rivers and lakes believed the mounds of thread-like fibers in water samples taken near shorelines were spent threads from fisherman’s rope. Richard Thompson, a research scientist at the University of Plymouth in England, dispelled the romantic myth with a 2004 study revealing the fibrous deposits collected in the shallow Atlantic waters near populated harbors and beaches were not from rope or natural materials, but were in fact microscopic plastic. Browne further refined Thompson’s study to conclude the collection of globs he was gathering at beaches around the world were actually fibrous micro-plastic threads. Browne hand sampled shallow waters near the shoreline and deep ocean, targeting Plymouth and Newcastle England, “where treated sewage sludge was dumped into the ocean for 10 years.” He was able to nail down the content and source of the fabric discharge Thompson had identified. “This pollution discharge is clearly from washing machines after cleaning synthetic acrylic, polyethylene and polyester clothing,” says Browne. “The entire population is contributing.” Browne had to enlist fellow scientists to pitch in to gather the requisite research samples. “We couldn’t pay anyone, so we had to find colleagues located in the areas near our sampling sites or those who were traveling to conferences and convince them this was a worthwhile and useful study, ” he says. Few are now questioning the importance of Browne’s research. “Identifying and quantifying fleece and polyester garments as a large pollution source coming from washing machines is a huge step forward in realizing the impacts microplastics have in the marine environment,” says Sherry Lippiatt, California regional coordinator for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s marine debris program. “Mark’s study clearly provides a better understanding of pollution sources and impacts, which helps us to more effectively manage marine debris.” The entire population is contributing. Though the problem is global and almost ubiquitous—your birthday suit and 100 percent cotton are about the only microplastic fiber-free things you wear—the solutions are possibly very simple. “We’ve proposed developing filters as standard equipment in washing machines and asking clothing manufacturers to develop clothing that doesn’t shed so many of these microplastic fibers in the waste stream,” says Browne. “The reason this problem has grown to such an extent is because the public, the clothing manufacturing industry and government don’t have the information to make better choices. This fibrous microplastic pollution occurs in high quantities near the shoreline where people swim, fish, boat and surf.” Later this month, Browne will be traveling to NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena as one of 10 finalists chosen by LAUNCH, an organization formed by Nike, NASA, the State Department and the U.S. Agency for International Development. Browne describes the LAUNCH initiative as a think-tank partnership among those entities to encourage innovative ideas that promote “a future where the making of things has a positive impact on human prosperity and planetary sustainability.” Browne will pitch a prototype filter for washing machines and labels identifying the plastic-waste content in clothing. Browne’s team includes scientists from England, Australia and the United States who collectively go by the name “Benign by Design.” “We chose the name Benign by Design because that’s what we’re trying to do—take the least toxic, benign way and work toward bio-compatibility,” says Browne. “We need to put filters on washing machines. I’d like to see a call to action to get the public to demand the information on the microplastic polluting clothing content be given to consumers. Other industries have labeling on food and medicine so they can make informed choices. The public should demand the government and the clothing manufacturers label their clothing.” Although the LAUNCH contest comes with no cash prize, the forum offers greater exposure to research, business and government leaders. “It’s like two days of speed dating with industry and government providing access to solicit their financial help to further your ideas,” says Browne.
Posted on: Wed, 23 Jul 2014 09:13:26 +0000
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