#ARCTIC. #SIBERIA. THIS IS TAIMYR. Microplastics are already found in everything – food, water, even alcohol. Humans are made up of almost one-tenth of one percent microplastic particles. Scientists say that the coming decades will be humanity’s constant struggle to reduce microplastics in the environment. It will be especially important to switch to food that contains the least amount of plastic particles.
Sea currents carry pollution evenly across all seas; there are too many cities in the middle zone – which means that the Arctic and Antarctica remain the cleanest. And in these regions there is only one terrestrial game animal – reindeer.
Elhana Ryabova, candidate of geographical sciences, associate professor of the Ecology and Environmental Management Department, Faculty of Geography, Moscow State Pedagogical University, is researching the distribution of microplastics in various environments.
“Currently, the term microplastics (MP) refers to plastic particles smaller than five millimeters in size. The lower limit is 0.1 microns – that is, one ten-thousandth of a millimeter. Accordingly, the smaller the MP particles, the easier they are and the longer distances they can be transported. In addition, these particles have different polymer compositions and different densities, which also affect migration processes, including atmospheric transfer”, she explained.
The expert said that microplastics are primary and secondary. Primary is understood as small-sized initial plastic particles, which are used in various industries, for example, as an additive in cosmetics or scrubs.
A wider spectrum is represented by secondary microplastics, which appear as a result of the decomposition of large plastic waste. Discarded bottles, plastic bags and disposable tableware break down under the influence of environmental factors, primarily sunlight, into small pieces that retain their molecular structure. Particles of secondary microplastic can migrate with water flows and air masses over a fairly large distance. Currently, there are articles in which it was said that MP was discovered in the snow of Antarctica and in the high-mountain ice of the Andes. This all indicates the large-scale transport of particles with air masses.
Some scientists also note that an important factor in microplastic pollution is the abrasion of car tires and some types of road surfaces.
Answering the question whether there are particles of plastic in the tundra, Elhana Ryabova replied that its presence is mainly influenced by air transport. To be more precise, detailed studies are needed that take into account the presence of settlements, industrial enterprises and wind roses.
It was the task of the polar explorer-instructor Vladimir Dmitriev, the head of the Clean Arctic – East – 77 expedition’s research party, when he went to the Far North’s remote areas.
“Plastic is already everywhere, when it gets into the vastness of nature, it crumbles, breaks, then its particles rise into the atmosphere and spread around the world, ending up in water, soil and snow. This problem is still in its infancy, but it is necessary to study and monitor the spread of microplastics in order to take timely and effective measures to combat this phenomenon. After all, it can accumulate in the body, and this is unsafe. Therefore, my task during testing of the Ursa all-terrain vehicle along the route Novy Urengoy – Dudinka – Norilsk, among others, was to collect snow samples. During the Arctic journey along the way, I took samples near the Severo-Soleninskoye field, the village of Tuhard and Norilsk. They have all already arrived at the laboratory and are being studied”, said the all-terrain vehicle tester.
According to Oksana Tolstyh, candidate of geographical sciences, chief of staff of the Clean Arctic – Vostok – 77 expedition, in order to have complete data on a particular study, it is necessary to study samples and new data in dynamics. Constantly organizing expeditions is costly both in time and finances. Therefore, researchers from Moscow proposed to attract motivated and passionate people in different regions of our country, the so-called scientific partisans.
“Scientific partisans are our assistants, these are the people whom we selected, looked at their interest in helping scientific research and explained certain time cycles by which they are involved in the process: this is either interviewing, or collecting some kind of natural material like snow”, Oksana explained.
For example, scientists began collaborating with schoolchildren from environmental classes in Novy Urengoy. It was decided to attract high school students who are passionate about science, many of whom are preparing to enter the university to study geography.
“Already in the summer, children will begin to complete certain tasks and formulate scientific projects. They will be closer to the scientific community, will practice and hone their skills, and this will be very useful for us”, the expert added.
Elhana Ryabova clarified how dangerous microplastics are to human health.
“I will answer this question with some caution. We should understand that in order to prove the unequivocal negative impact of MP on human health, it is necessary to conduct long-term (over several years or even decades) studies, including a large sample size and a control group. So far, no such studies have been conducted. However, now there is a fairly large number of foreign studies conducted on laboratory animals and biological organisms removed from the natural environment, which indicate that microplastics do have a negative effect on the body”, the researcher shared.
According to her, the gastrointestinal tract suffers first of all from the negative effects of microplastics, for example, inflammation of the intestinal walls occurs when MP particles accumulate in it. Some studies link the influence of microplastics with an increased risk of developing tumors, bone loss and other serious disorders, but there is no reliable evidence of this yet.
“We also have to understand that microplastics themselves do not always have a negative effect on the body. As the World Health Organization noted in 2019, the risk to human health is determined not only by the MP particles themselves, but also by dyes and various additives that give the plastic certain properties (for example, phthalates), as well as by the additional microbial load that can cause pathogenic impact upon entry into the human body”, added Elhana Ryabova.
Research into microplastics is still underway, but scientists and specialists, including representatives of the largest Russian continental expedition Clean Arctic – Vostok – 77 and the institutes of the Russian Academy of Sciences that organized this expedition, are keeping the new environmental problem under control.
Follow us on Telegram, VKontakte.
Text: Polina Bardik, Photo: Nikolay Shchipko
