nanoplastic Archives - One Earth - One Ocean e. V.

Plastics highly concentrated in Australian waters

guenther — Sat, 15 Mar 2014 15:39:19 +0000

http://www.sciencewa.net.au/topics/fisheries-a-water/item/2674-plastics-highly-concentrated-in-australian-waters.html

Plastics highly concentrated in Australian waters
Thursday, 13 February 2014 10:00

Written By Rebecca Graham

MICROPLASTICS less than 5mm in diameter are contaminating Australia’s
sea surface at a concentration of more than 4000 pieces per square
kilometre, according to research from UWA and CSIRO's Wealth from Oceans
Flagship.

Oceanographer and lead researcher Julia Reisser a PhD candidate at UWA’s
Oceans Institute and School of Environmental Systems Engineering, says
this information is an important step in quantifying the plastic hazards
that threaten Australian species and marine regions.

“The high number of small plastics present in our oceans is a toxic
threat to marine organisms and environments,” she says.

“They contain hazardous ingredients from manufacturing, like Bisphenol
A, as well as pollutants adsorbed from the seawater, which are
bioaccumulated up the marine food chain.

“Until now, we had little idea how much these tiny plastics were present
in Australian waters.”

Ms Reisser conducted sea surface net tows at 57 locations around
Australia, enabling her to collect the characteristics and concentration
of marine plastics in Australian waters.

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Polystyrene Nanoparticles Perturb Lipid Membranes

guenther — Sat, 15 Mar 2014 15:35:08 +0000

http://dx.doi.org/10.1021/jz402234c

Giulia Rossi, Jonathan Barnoud, and Luca Monticelli
Polystyrene Nanoparticles Perturb Lipid Membranes
J. Phys. Chem. Lett., 2014, 5 (1), pp 241–246
DOI: 10.1021/jz402234c
Abstract: Polystyrene is abundant in marine debris. Like most synthetic
polymers, it degrades very slowly, producing smaller and smaller
particles easily ingested by wildlife. The presence of plastic
microscopic particles in fish and marine wildlife is massive and well
documented, but its impact on cellular activity is not understood.
Biological activity generally requires interaction with biological
membranes, but this is difficult to study at the molecular scale in
vivo. Here we use coarse-grained molecular simulations to determine the
effect of nanosized polystyrene (PS) particles on the properties of
model biological membranes. We find that PS nanoparticles permeate
easily into lipid membranes. Dissolved in the membrane core, PS chains
alter membrane structure, significantly reduce molecular diffusion, and
soften the membrane. Moreover, PS severely affects membrane lateral
organization by stabilizing raft-like domains. Changes in membrane
properties and lateral organization can severely affect the activity of
membrane proteins and thereby cellular function.
Keywords: lipid membranes; polymers; nanoparticle; coarse-grained
models; molecular dynamics; rafts

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Macro, micro and nanoplastic pollution in the aquatic and terrestrial environments, Basel

guenther — Sun, 22 Dec 2013 18:44:31 +0000

http://basel.setac.eu/scientific_programme/?contentid=683&pr_id=635

http://basel.setac.eu/embed/Basel/Files/Emerging_contaminants_all_sessions_v2.pdf

SETAC Europe 24th Annual Meeting in Basel, Switzerland, 11-15 May 2014

Macro, micro and nanoplastic pollution in the aquatic and terrestrial
environments: Sources, fate, exposure and ecological and
toxicological impacts
CHAIRS: Heather Leslie, Dick Vethaak

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