14 DAY TRIAL // Microplastic pollution harms lakes just as much as it does oceans, a study recently published in the journal Archives des Sciences says.
The scientists now saying that aquatic life in lakes and marine environments are equally threatened by this form of environmental pollution base their claims on data collected while analyzing the water quality of Lake Geneva in Western Europe.
EurekAlert informs us that, while carrying out their investigations, the researchers found that both the beaches surrounding Lake Geneva and the lake's waters showed clear signs of microplastic contamination.
More precisely, they managed to pin bits and pieces of plastic debris, some of which measured up to 5 mm in diameter.
“We found plastic in every sample we took from the beaches,” researcher Florian Faure said.
As previous studies have shown, the plastic debris that hits water sources negatively impact on local fish and bird population.
Thus, these animals have high chances of confusing the bits of plastic with their usual food source (i.e. plankton and other small organisms) and feed on them.
Should the plastic begin to accumulate in their digestive tract, the animals are likely to die in a relatively short time span.
Interestingly enough, both Switzerland and France are well known for being concerned about the wellbeing of their natural landscapes, and for rolling out several measures intended to curb environmental pollution.
As Florian Faure put it, “We were surprised to find such high concentrations of microplastics, especially in an environmentally aware country like Switzerland.”
Because of this, the researchers fear that, in countries where little attention is given to such issues, the situation could be much worse.
This investigation was carried out by scientists working with the Ecole Polytechnique Fèderalè de Lausanne.
The Swiss Federal Office for the Environment has agreed to allow them to continue their work, meaning that the researchers will now focus on pinning down patterns of microplastic pollution in several other lakes and rivers across the country.