Word: plasticizers
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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Perhaps the most ubiquitous form of plastic trash is the tiny polyethylene pellets used in the manufacture of plastic items. In one survey, researchers calculated that, on average, a square mile of the Sargasso Sea, southeast of Florida, contained between 8,000 and 10,000 bobbing pellets. Says Al Pruter, a fishery biologist and partner in a Seattle-based natural- resources consulting firm: "Almost without exception, surveys show plastic to account for over one-half the man-made products on the ocean surface...
...plastic is taking a heavy toll on marine life, particularly on seals, sea lions, turtles and seabirds. By one estimate, as many as 50,000 northern fur seals in the Pribilof Islands die each year after becoming enshrouded in netting. "Young seals get their heads or flippers caught in it," says Laist. "Then they either become exhausted from toting it or their ability to catch food is restricted...
...Smaller plastic items are frequently mistaken for prey by turtles and birds, often with fatal results. Leatherback turtles, which feast on jellyfish, are particularly attracted to plastic bags. Says University of Florida Zoologist Archie Carr, an authority on sea turtles: "Any kind of film or semitranslucent material appears to look like jellyfish to them." Trouble is, the bags--or other plastic items like golf tees--can form a lethal plug in the turtle's digestive tract...
...least 42 species of seabirds are known to snack on plastic. Of 50 albatrosses found ill or dead on the Midway Islands, 45 had eaten some form of the substance. In several, the plastic had either obstructed the digestive tract or caused ulcers. Says James Coe, program manager for the Marine Entanglement Research Program at the National Marine Fisheries Service in Seattle: "We have found everything from toy soldiers to pens, fishing bobbers and poker chips in the birds' stomachs." A study of wedge-tailed shearwaters, which breed on central Pacific islands, showed that 60% of the adults surveyed...
Efforts to reduce the amount of plastic jettisoned into the oceans have been largely unsuccessful. Although the U.S. and 59 other nations agreed in 1972 to outlaw the dumping of durable plastics, among other substances, into the oceans, the treaty failed to address the discharge of ordinary garbage, which contains large quantities of plastic items. Ten states are trying to do their part; they have passed legislation requiring that six-pack yokes be made of treated plastic that degrades rapidly in sunlight. Nonetheless, concludes Zoologist Carr: "This junk is growing in abundance year by year. It is just getting outrageous...