Tootfinder

What can go wrong?
"Spanish researchers have identified different types of plastics in seminal plasma and ovarian follicular fluid"
#plastics #pollution #health

"Microplastics are everywhere—but our methods to track them are all over the place"
#Microplastics #Plastic #Plastics

Microplastics are everywhere—but our methods to track them are all over the place
A new study from the University of Portsmouth has highlighted the growing role of citizen science in tackling one of the planet's most pervasive pollution problems: microplastics and mesoplastics. While researchers often warn that a lack of standardized protocols risks muddying the waters, this research shows that public involvement could be key to plugging the data gaps and that comparability rather than conformity is key.

A bibliometric analysis on the current situation and hot trends of the impact of microplastics on soil based on CiteSpace
Yiran Zheng, Yue Quan, Su Yan, Xinting Lv, Yuguanmin Cao, Minjie Fu, Mingji Jin
https://arxiv.org/abs/2507.01520

A bibliometric analysis on the current situation and hot trends of the impact of microplastics on soil based on CiteSpace
This paper aims to comprehensively grasp the research status and development trends of soil microplastics (MPs). It collects studies from the Web of Science Core Collection covering the period from 2013 to 2024. Employing CiteSpace and VOSviewer, the paper conducts in - depth analyses of literature regarding the environmental impacts of microplastics. These analyses involve keyword co - occurrence, clustering, burst term identification, as well as co - occurrence analysis of authors and institu…

remember folks, when you read "microplastics" think "bits of tires in the air"

Information pollution.
AI slop is the microplastics of data. https://mastodon.social/@dtgeek/114616913983544628

"Green roofs shown to capture nearly all microplastics from rainwater"
#Microplastics #Plastic #Plastics

Green roofs shown to capture nearly all microplastics from rainwater
A small team of researchers at Tongji University, working with a colleague from the Shanghai Academy of Landscape Architecture Science and Planning, both in China, has found that growing plants on roofs can serve as an effective way to remove microplastics from the air. In their study, published in the journal Communications Earth & Environment, the group measured the amounts of microplastics found on plants and the soil in which they grow.

"Scientists use the ‘smell of burned plastic’ to measure nanoplastics in the ocean"
#Plastic #Plastics #Microplastics

"The life of microplastic: how fragments move through plants, insects, animals - and you"
#Plastic #Plastics #Microplastics

"In recent times, tire wear particles have been found to account for about 45% of all microplastics in both terrestrial and aquatic systems...
Rain washes those tire wear particles into ditches, where they flow into streams, lakes, rivers and oceans...
In a recent study, we tested pine wood chips and biochar – a form or charcoal made from heating rice husks in a limited oxygen chamber, a process known as pyrolysis – and found they could remove approximately 90% of tire wear …

One of the biggest microplastic pollution sources isn’t straws or grocery bags – it’s your tires
Rain storms wash those tire shards into streams and ultimately into lakes and oceans. That’s bad news for fish and other aquatic life.

Weekend #Plankton Factoid 🦠🦐
27 M tonnes. Dutch NIOZ scientists found that nanoplastics (<1 μm) are not only widespread, but equivalent to the mass of macro & microplastics! Polyethylene terephthalate (PET), polystyrene (PS) and polyvinyl chloride (PVC) #plastics don't just float on th…

https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2025/08/microplastics-exposure-health-risks/683249/?gift=7dKtnNrILXcLLty1b9gh3hCmZ7_VaJt-S6NiDl5ppQU

What Happened When I Tried to Eliminate Plastic From My Family’s Life
My futile quest to avoid the material that my entire world is made out of

"One of the biggest microplastic pollution sources isn't straws or grocery bags. It's your tires"
#Microplastics #Plastic #Plastics

One of the biggest microplastic pollution sources isn't straws or grocery bags. It's your tires
Every few years, the tires on your car wear thin and need to be replaced. But where does that lost tire material go?

Optimal Experimental Design for Microplastics Sampling Experiments
Marco A. Aquino-L\'opez, Ana Carolina Ruiz-Fern\'andez, Joan-Albert Sanchez-Cabeza, J. Andr\'es Christen
https://arxiv.org/abs/2507.08170

Optimal Experimental Design for Microplastics Sampling Experiments
Microplastics contamination is one of the most rapidly growing research topics. However, monitoring microplastics contamination in the environment presents both logistical and statistical challenges, particularly when constrained resources limit the scale of sampling and laboratory analysis. In this paper, we propose a Bayesian framework for the optimal experimental design of microplastic sampling campaigns. Our approach integrates prior knowledge and uncertainty quantification to guide decisio…

"Metal bottle caps ‘surprising’ source of microplastic contamination, study finds"
#Microplastics
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/20

This https://arxiv.org/abs/2502.20014 has been replaced.
initial toot: https://mastoxiv.page/@arX…

Monitoring microplastics in live reef-building corals with microscopic laser particles
Micro- and nanoplastics pose a growing threat to reef-building corals. Yet, understanding of their uptake, interaction with coral tissue and long-term incorporation into coral skeletons remains limited in large part due to the invasive nature of existing methods for monitoring and localizing microplastic. Here, we repurpose optical resonances in polymer spheres to transform microplastic particles into microscopic lasers. These laser particles emit distinctive and stable spectral signatures that…

"Glass bottles found to contain more microplastics than plastic bottles"
#Glass #Microplastics #Plastic #Plastics

Glass bottles found to contain more microplastics than plastic bottles
Drinks including water, soda, beer and wine sold in glass bottles contain more microplastics than those in plastic bottles, according to a surprising study released by France's food safety agency Friday.

"Plastic bag bans help: Study finds up to 47% drop in shoreline bag litter"
#Plastic #Plastics #Environment

Plastic bag bans help: Study finds up to 47% drop in shoreline bag litter
Among the biggest culprits of plastic pollution in the ocean and along shorelines are thin plastic shopping bags, which have low recycling rates and often become litter when they blow away in the wind. Once there, they can entangle animals and break down into harmful microplastics. As awareness of this problem has grown, more than 100 countries have instituted bans or fees on plastic bags. But what effect those policies are having on the amount of plastic litter in the marine environment has no…

"Microplastics and melting ice reveal deepening crisis in Antarctica"
#Antarctica #Microplastics #Plastic #Plastics

Microplastics and melting ice reveal deepening crisis in Antarctica
Glaciers melting rapidly, fields of moss expanding, water streaming off ice shelves once frozen solid: these are just a few of the impacts of climate change observed by a team of 57 researchers during a 70-day voyage around the Antarctic coast on the Russian icebreaker Akademik Tryoshnikov. The expedition also revealed the presence of microplastics […]

"Call to make wet wipe producers pay for polluting England’s waterways"
#UK #UnitedKingdom #England #Environment