Editor's note: This commentary is by Cynthia Norman, of Burlington, who works for the Lake Champlain Basin Program and is a member of The Nature Conservancy.
[P]lastic particles in Lake Champlain just got much more alarming. Polyester fleece sheds minute bits of fiber in the washing machine and a recent study found these microfibers in tap water from 90 percent of U.S. cities tested.
Each time a fleece garment is washed thousands of invisibly tiny fragments of polyester are shed into the water and go down the drain. Too small to be filtered out by wastewater treatment plants, they enter our lakes and rivers. Too tiny to be filtered out by drinking water plants, they come into our municipal water supplies. Local researchers from SUNY Plattsburgh have found microfibers in treatment plant effluent from Burlington, St. Albans and Plattsburgh. These fibers do not sink to the bottom of the lake, but float freely in the water column. No one has tested Burlington or St. Albans drinking water for microfibers, but an August study of 150 cities around the world found them in tap water from 90 percent of the U.S. cities tested.
This makes microfibers extremely alarming, much more so than the plastic trash in the oceans that we’ve been hearing about for years. Microfibers come from the ordinary washing of popular garments, so they can’t be blamed on bad people who litter. Nor are microfibers a distant problem in the center of the ocean, but are right here in the water coming out of our faucets.
The health effects of ingesting microfibers are not known. But two facts give cause for alarm.
First, microfibers do not pass through the digestive system, as larger bits of plastic would. These fine thread-like fragments catch in the microvilli of the intestines and stay there, like lint trapped in Velcro.
Secondly, like other plastics in surface water, polyester microfibers attract molecules of toxic chemicals, such as dioxin and PCBs, which adhere to the surface of the fibers. So when we ingest microfibers in drinking water, we are likely taking in known carcinogens as well.
The public needs to know this. There are steps we can take.
To minimize release of microfibers:
• Reduce the buying, use and washing of fleece.
• Google “cora ball” and “guppy friend” for products that reduce fiber release.
• Use front loading washing machines, if possible. (With less agitation, fewer fibers are shed.)
• Pass the word.
Don’t take my word for it. There is more information online:
• Cartoon overview of the problem
• Research on microfibers in Lake Champlain
• Microplastics in tap water around the world
• Deeper look at the problem worldwide:
Invisibles: The plastics inside us
Plastic Pollutants Pervade Water and Land
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