Tristen Cortez EDINBURG – Researchers from the science journal Environmental Chemistry Letters recently discovered microplastic contents in cloud water in Japan, signaling the rise of microplastic pollution in oceans and rivers throughout the world.
The two key plastics investigated, polyethylene terephthalate and polypropylene, the former of which comprises items like plastic water bottles and synthetic fibers, were detected over Mt. Fuji and Mt. Oyama.
The findings of the research have led marine biologists to evaluate the effects of microplastic pollution on not just the environment, but on people’s bodies.
Wesley Franklin, a fish scientist who previously conducted a study on microplastics in the resacas of the Rio Grande Valley, said that microplastics in small organisms can have big impacts on a larger scale.
“Once they accumulate so much, it starts to not only get in their stomachs, but it’ll pass that stomach skin barrier and get into their muscle tissue,” Franklin said. “So, if this goes on for another 50 to 100 years and humans start to get microplastics in their systems, it could have lots of carcinogenic effects.”
Hudson Deyoe, associate director for the School of Earth, Environmental and Marine Sciences, has spent his 20-plus year career looking in-depth at biotic life and its contributions to the nutritional health of South Texas’ water.
Deyoe said as things stands right now, pollutants in South Texas water have yet to make a larger impact on the overall environment of the region.
“There is of course the Rio Grande, which I spent quite a bit of time recently looking at,” Deyoe said. “The river is actually in reasonably good shape, given the amount of people that use the river and put things in the river.”
Deyoe added people can help keep water clean by being involved in their local aquatic ecosystems and helping with plastic and trash cleanup in places such as South Padre Island.
