In recent years, PM2.5, an inhalable particulate matter in the atmosphere, has caused widespread public concern due to severe haze. However, few people know that lakes, rivers and reservoirs that are closely related to people's livelihood are equally affected by PM2.5 in water Plastic attack.
As a large country in plastic production and use, the prevention and control of plastic pollution is causing great attention in China. Researchers are making every effort to declare war on PM2.5 in water.
PM2.5 in water threatens ecosystems and human health
Due to the low recycling rate and improper management, the plastic rubbish gradually becomes the plastic material known by scientists as PM2.5 in water after entering the water environment such as the ocean and fresh water, that is, the plastic fragments smaller than 5 mm And particles, threatening the water environment and human health.
'A large number of studies show that micro-plastics are ubiquitous in a variety of marine environments and are enriched in the oceanic circulation and coastal zones.' "Wang Wenfeng, Ph.D., of the Wuhan Botanical Garden, Chinese Academy of Sciences, said that in recent years, they found that micro-plastic pollution of inland water bodies Exists, and some of the water pollution is more serious than the marine environment.
Shihua Wang, a researcher at the State Key Laboratory of Estuarine and Coastal Research of East China Normal University, said that the concept of 'micro-plastic' was first proposed by the British scholar Thomsen in 2004 and considered as a new type of environmental pollutant. More and more people's attention.
Wang Juying, a researcher with the National Marine Environmental Monitoring Center, said that due to its size range of less than 5 millimeters, micro-plastic is easier to be fed by food like smaller food size than low-trophic level plankton and is likely to migrate along with the food chain High trophic level transmission, to the ecosystem and human health caused great hidden danger.
According to the estimation by China-ASEAN Environmental Protection Cooperation Center, the global annual plastic production is about 300 million tons, an increase of 20 times over the 1960s. Over 40% of the plastics are used only once, and some are even less than 1 Minutes have been discarded, but plastic in the global environment there will be hundreds of years, of which about 35,000 tons of plastic in the ocean.
Wang Wenfeng, 29, has joined the research group on micro-plastic pollution since 2015. He hopes that the public and the government will attach importance to the management of micro-plastic pollution through in-depth investigation and research on the micro-plastic pollution in freshwater environment.
China started late, researchers lack the number
Since the 18th CPC National Congress, the Central Committee has proposed that the Yangtze River Economic Belt should "give top priority to large-scale protection and not major development" and give top priority to ecological and environmental protection while all localities should comprehensively strengthen the accountability of environmental inspectors and improve the ecological and environmental responsibility system. Hubei further strengthens the environmental protection and management of industrial parks and the chemical enterprises and parks along the Yangtze River to remediation of pollution so as to ensure that one river of clean water can survive for generations to come.
Mentioned micro-plastic pollution research, Wang Wen-feng admitted that the domestic started late, a clear shortage of professional researchers.
'In 2015, I took micro-plastic pollution as my doctoral dissertation topic.It was very difficult to do this task at that time, there were very few Chinese documents available for reference and only a large amount of access to English literature was available.' Wang Wenfeng said: 'From 8 am to evening Half past ten, not outside monitoring of water, is soaked in the laboratory.
Finally, last year, Wang Wenfeng and his research team investigated the status of micro-plastic pollution in the lakes and reservoirs in the Three Gorges area and provided an important reference for the world to understand the level of micro-plastic pollution in freshwater systems. Recently, they monitored the micro-plastic pollution in Dongting Lake, Honghu Lake, Poyang Lake and Danjiangkou Reservoir, further confirming the extensive existence of micro-plastic.
Wang Wenfeng introduced the current foreign research on micro-plastic pollution focused on the marine environment, and freshwater micro-plastic pollution data is relatively scarce.To this end, he and laboratory team members to improve innovation sampling technology abroad, making it suitable for the field of freshwater research.
According to reports, the micro-plastic is divided into primary and secondary micro-plastic micro-plastic two categories. Micro-plastic primary refers to the river, sewage treatment plants and other marine particles into the marine environment of industrial products, such as cosmetics and other micro-plastic Pellets or plastic pellets and resin pellets as industrial raw materials; secondary plastic pellets are plastic pellets that are split and reduced in size by physical, chemical and biological processes of large plastic rubbish.
Wang Wenfeng said that after investigation, the micro plastic in the water environment of the Yangtze River is mainly dominated by secondary micro - plastic. The abundance of micro - plastic in the surface water of the Yangtze River is about 2,000 per cubic meter, of which plastic fiber accounts for more than 70% of the total number of micro - plastics. Most of these plastic fibers are colored, so we speculate that most of them may originate from sewage discharges from both sides of the Yangtze River and the upper reaches, with the size of less than 2 mm, accounting for more than 80% of the total, indicating that micro Plastics may pose some environmental risks to aquatic life in the Yangtze, because the size of this plastic is close to that of zooplankton and is easily consumed by other aquatic animals.
Public awareness of micro plastic to be improved
Some experts believe that the past research has proved the universal existence of micro-plastic. The main goal of the next ten years of research is to clarify its ecological and health hazards, which takes time to prove with sufficient scientific evidence.
'There are universities in China that have explored the degradation of micro-plastics by micro-plastics and will benefit human development if the trials are successful and can be widely promoted,' said Wang Wenfeng.
'Only by revealing the distribution characteristics of micro-plastic to clarify its environmental behavior and fate, to assess its ecological risk, in order to study the relevant management measures and control measures to protect the safety of aquatic environment' Wang Wenfeng said.
Wang Wenfeng team members are basically '80 after ', many of them students from African countries, because less relevant research in Africa, they hope to bring the research results to the future and benefit the locals.
Wang Wenfeng said that the standard of microplastic research and monitoring is not uniform, which hinders the research and governance of all countries and suggests that relevant standards should be uniformed in the future as soon as possible. For example, in some countries, legislation has banned micromoplastics in cosmetics and toiletries in recent years and the Chinese government needs From the perspective of policy and legislation to strengthen pollution control, the public's understanding of micro-plastic has yet to be improved.
'Many foreign micro-plastic research has reached the nano-scale, we remain at the millimeter level, the future we will increase investment and improve the accuracy of the study.' He said.