Impacts of Plastic Pollution on Land & Food
SPEAKERS
Bernice Butler, Dr. M.B. Kirkham, Madeline Kaufman
Bernice Butler
Since its rise in the 1950s, the plastic sector has increased significantly, and today it represents more or one of the largest and most economically important sectors to our society. The properties of this material, such as its durability, its malleability, its lightweight, low cost and others have contributed to the growth of the sector and to its multiple applications. For instance, plastics are extensively used in our packaging, in car manufacturing, building and construction, as well as agriculture. Now, despite the multiple benefits of this material and what it offers, plastics are also associated with high levels of waste and leakage into our environment. This is a result of single use plastics applications, inadequate end of life treatment, low recycle ability of our society, and low reusability rates and the high potential of this integration into micro plastics. More than 80% of plastics found in marine environments has been produced, consumed and disposed up on land. Microplastic contamination on land is estimated to be 4 to 32 times higher than in the ocean. And in addition to inadequate end of life treatment of plastic waste, plastics reach our soils through increasing use for agricultural purposes, and yearly inputs of micro plastics in European and North American farmlands are estimated to be 63,000 to 43,040 4000 to 300,000 tons, respectively. So without doubt, a greater recognition and consideration of the issue of plastic pollution and soil and its implications is needed by our general public, as well as in our public policies and our legislation. And this is a lot.
So, here today to help us unpack some of this as it relates to environmental impacts on land and food is Dr. MB Kirkham, Dr Kirkham and MB stands for Marybeth. Dr Kirkham is a University Distinguished Professor in the Department of Agronomy at Kansas State University, and she's a graduate of Wellesley College and has a PhD from the University of Wisconsin, that the curriculum’s research deals with water movement in the soil plant atmosphere, continuity, and the uptake of heavy metals by plants grown on contaminated soil. She recently authored plastic particulates in our terrestrial and aquatic environments, with her colleague Dr. Bonnie Bowman, of Newcastle University in Australia. Dr. Kirkham is the author and co-author of over 300 contributions to scientific publications, and is on the editorial board of 16 publications. Dr. Kirkham has broken into this largely new field, and is the author as we said of many, many contributions, but she's broken into this largely new field of particulate plastics and their contamination on the land environment, where no information exists concerning the water relations of plants grown in soil when they're exposed to particulate matters. He's also published three textbooks dealing with soil and plant water and carbon dioxide relations. And I want to go back and make sure that our audience understands when we say plastic particulates in our terrestrial and aquatic environments, that relates to plastic particulates In our land and water environments. So welcome, Marybeth.
Dr. M.B. Kirkham
Thank you for having me.
Bernice Butler
Did I get all of that right?
Dr. M.B. Kirkham
Yes. Yeah, that's great.
Bernice Butler
Marybeth, before we get started, I want to ask you about some research that I read that you did. You did research to determine the growth, the evapo-transpiration rate and the domain resistance of wheat grown in soil with a particular plastic, and the results were published. Now, I don't understand all of that. And I'm assuming our audience does not either, but it sounds really important. Could you tell us about that and what it means and its significance?
Dr. M.B. Kirkham
Thank you very much. Well, to do a little historical background, my colleague in Australia, Dr. Nancy Boland, who collected the book with me, and we co-edited another book before, he asked me to co-edit this book. Microplastics are what we call particulate plastics. And I had never worked with particular plastics before, but I knew it was a hot topic. So I said, “Yes.” And I agree, do I have a chapter on particular plastics as a result of agriculture? And then I was talking to my sister on the telephone, and she's a professor of Italian at the University of Pennsylvania. And she said, “Well, what happens when you add these particular plastics to the soil?” She says, “Why don't you just grind them up and put them in the soil?” And I said, “Well, I don't know. But I'll try it.” So I did it. And apparently, this is the one of only a couple of studies that have been done, showing the effects of micro plastics in the soil and plant growth.
And since I am an expert on the movement of water through the soil plant atmospheric continuum, I focused on water. Now the evapo-transpiration rate is the rate of water loss from the leaves. We know that plants transpire. And when we add the water that comes from the soil, which is called evaporative, evaporation, we get something called evapo-transpiration. And this water evaporates out of small pores on the plant leaves called stomata. And when these stomata open, the plant is taking up carbon dioxide, and it's healthy and happy. But when these stomata are closed, the plant is sick and will die. And so I added particular plastics to the soil. I found that they affected both evapo-transpiration rate and the water loss from the stomata. And first of all, these particular plastics in the soil cause flocculation in the soil particles, so the water does not infiltrate into the soil. And so the roots get anaerobic. They lack oxygen because the water is not infiltrating, not moving to the soil. And then consequently, this affects the health of the plant, and the stomata close and the plants die.
So that's sort of a thumbnail sketch of what I was looking at in this experiment. But I might add, there was one much more important component of this experiment. We know that these micro plastics in the soil are vectors for heavy metals, such as cadmium, and that's a pollutant in the soil. And so in half my experiment, I added cadmium to the soil. And I found that indeed, the wheat plants that grew with cadmium and the micro plastics took up a lot more cadmium than the plants that grew in the soil without the micro plastics. So that is a very serious concern, we're going to have uptake of these toxic elements. Along with some corn, we have the micro plastics in soil.
Bernice Butler
Indeed, that is interesting. And I just want to sum that up in a way that our listeners really get its importance, because that's the purpose of our whole show here. So what you're saying by the particulates, or micro plastics in the soil affect the quality and the quantity or the growth rate of plants. Yes. And perhaps even more importantly, they cause plants to intake heavy metals into those plants. We eat those plants in or we come in contact with those plants, then we're coming in contact with or eating heavy metals. And then it's going to affect the quality of a plant and the plant foods that we ingest. Yes, but really briefly, and this is relevant to what we were talking about already, though. How does the excessive use of micro plastics cause damage to our environment?
Dr. M.B. Kirkham
Okay, well, I talked to someone who's involved in agriculture, and when agricultural use of micro plastics or plastics in many ways, like plastic mulches that are laid down in the soil to improve the heat and allow early plant grows and plastic greenhouses, are some of the many ways we use plastics. And all these are breaking down and causing plastic pollution and so we need to look more at plastics in the soil. As you say, there's a lot of interest in plastic from plastic cups and things like that. But I don't think the plastic pollution in the soil has received enough information. And so we do need a lot more studies along these lines and part of the problem is just getting funding to do it.
Bernice Butler
Thank you, Marybeth. We'll be right back on the other side of the break. We've been with Dr. Marybeth Kurgan, who is a specialist in particulates and environmental effects on the soil and water. We'll be right back after the break. We want to give a shout out now to our sponsors. That is Earth x, the world's largest environmental experience promoting environmental awareness through Expo conferences, Film Festival, interactive experiences and now Earth act streaming TV. Other sponsors, Natural Awakenings Dallas Fort Worth magazine, the green healthy and sustainable living authority, while the DFW Metroplex and North Texas communities for issues of natural awakenings can be found in all Whole Foods markets, Natural Grocers, Central Markets, Sunflower Shops and many other locations as well as available free for download online at NADallas com. Check them out. Our other sponsor is North Haven Garden, serving the Metroplex since 1951, the most respected horticultural establishment in North Texas, offering gardening and plant education, concierge services, DUI classes and more and we're told with the best Christmas trees in Texas. Check them out @energy.com and our other sponsor is Lin Dental Care, practicing dentistry for over 38 years with a holistic approach. Looking at the whole body specializing in periodontics, Dr. Lynn is board certified by the International Academy of Oral Medicine and Toxicology. Check them out at lynndentalcare.com Thank you, sponsors.
Bernice Butler
Welcome back to Healthy Living Healthy Planet Radio. We are back with today's episode on plastic pollution, the impacts of plastic on land and food. And we are back with Dr. Marybeth Kirkham, a University Distinguished Professor in the Department of Agronomy at Kansas State University. Thank you again for being with us today, Marybeth.
Dr. M.B. Kirkham
Thank you for having me.
Bernice Butler
Before we left for the break, you were talking about the excessive use of plastics and how they cause damage to our environment. I want to talk a little bit about how plastic affects plants in terms of this groundbreaking research experimentation that we're doing. So tell us a little bit how plastics affect wildlife on land.
Dr. M.B. Kirkham
Okay, well, that's an interesting question. I haven't studied it in detail. I focus more on the soil. But let me explain a bit what happens when these micro plastics are added to the soil. We have earthworms in the soil. And earthworms take up these micro plastics. And then they release some impasse in the soil. And then the micro plastics can percolate on down to the to the groundwater. But we also know that birds eat worms. And so talking about wildlife, the birds are going to be eating these earthworms that have micro plastics in them. And this I think is just a completely unknown area of knowing what's going to happen to the wildlife. I mentioned a bit before about how the micro plastics affected the uptake of cadmium in the experiment I did with wheat and how if cattle graze that wheat, that they would have excessive levels of cadmium in them. But also we have deer. I wanted an experiment in the field and deer came and ate some of my plants, you will know they were crop plants. So deer might come and eat some of these plants that are crop plants. So I see wildlife being affected that way. But again, I'm not an expert on that.
Bernice Butler
But I have to think to the degree that wildlife is eating plants in the plastic polluted soil, then they too are uptaking. And what about the polluted soils effect or intersection with the water?
Dr. M.B. Kirkham
Oh, well, that that is of much more concern to me. Of course, wildlife is a potential problem too. But when these micro plastics… are all those agricultural plastics breaks down, and we in the United States, we have about a billion tons of plastics that are used annually in agriculture and, and other countries China now is under something called the white revolution. They have so much land covered with plastic now that it's just looks white when you look out over there. Land.
Bernice Butler
What do you mean when you say they have so much land covered with plastic?
Dr. M.B. Kirkham
The agricultural land as I said, these plastic mulches, and, okay, mulch, we usually think of star leaves, but I'm talking about 10 layers of plastics that are put on the soil and increases the temperature of the soil. And soil plants then germinate faster in the spring with these plastic mulches on them. And so yields are dramatically increased when you use a plastic mulch. Now these plastic mulches after the end of the season, the farmers roll them up, put them on the edge of the field, or sometimes they kill them into their soil. And that's one of the big problems. There's no protocol or no policy on the proper placement of these or removal of these micro plastics or the plastics from the soil field. So the micro plastics break down, plastics break down due to weathering, the sun, shining on them and so on. And again, the soil man, if the soil happens to be on a slope, or in a flood prone-prone region, they get into water, into creeks and rivers. And all the water that we have in the United States rolls out into the ocean, into the Pacific Ocean. And so plastics, that we are producing on land, end up in the ocean, and they pollute the creeks. And then also, if the plastics, you mentioned at the beginning of the program, how these plastics end up in our wastewater treatment plants… people who do laundry, after as fibers from our polyester, add up in our domestic wastewater, and separate our wastewater treatment plants. And then a lot of our slides from our wastewater treatment plants ends up on soil because putting pledge on land is recommended. So there are many ways that plastics get into our water.
Bernice Butler
To dive a little bit deeper, though, into this plastic, you're saying that is overlaid on agricultural crops? Because I was not aware of that. And I don't think that most listeners are aware of that, that there's plastic overlay on the food that we eat. Is this like a layer of plastic, like saran wrap? Or is this plastic beads? Or what type of plastic is it? What is it made of?
Dr. M.B. Kirkham
It's thin layers of polyethylene, and they're actually laid down in rows, and then there's no plastic between the rows, and then the seeds are planted under the rows, and then the little holes put in the plastic so the seeds can emerge. And then it's a little microclimate there underneath the plastic where the plant can emerge earlier in the spring, and the yields can be much greater, and also, and these plastic mulches also protect the plants from pass. And one way, particularly that they have been used, is that there's a fumigant called methyl bromide, and it is used to kill pests in the soil. And so this methyl bromide would be injected under these plastic sheets, and kill the pests in the soil
Bernice Butler
With these sheets, is that creating a mini-greenhouse type of thing?
Dr. M.B. Kirkham
Right. It's a mini-greenhouse and raises the temperature. So the plants grow better ranges, both the air temperature above the sheets and the soil temperature below the sheets.
Bernice Butler
So, what happens when there's extreme heat, like a lot of our planet is beginning to get and I know we're getting here in North Texas, what happens when that extreme heat hits that sheet? Does it break down? Does it not break down? What happens? And what is that sheet made of? What is the incidence of its breakdown and then leaching into the soil?
Dr. M.B. Kirkham
A very good question. The farmers, as I understand it, who use these plastic mulches, which is removed after a certain period of time. So if the soil in extreme heat of the summer though those plastic mulches wouldn't be on our soil surface, they roll them up, they put them on the edge of the field, and then they can break down and make… you can use a plastic mulch once. And so this is a huge problem. How do we get rid of all this plastic pollution that's being produced by the farmers? And some farmers just leave it rolled up on the edge of the field. Some farmers burn it. And most states now prevent burning of the plastic because when you burn the plastics, you produce dioxins, which is another carcinogen. So these plastics are polluting the environment and it's a very serious problem to get rid of them.
Bernice Butler
Very pervasive. Marybeth, can you talk to our listeners, though, about plastics’ ability to biodegrade?
Dr. M.B. Kirkham
They're very, very interesting. Now the polymers… there are these plastics are made out as you mentioned, since about the 1950s. We've been using plastics. They do not biodegrade readily. So people have been trying to get biodegradable plastics like putting starch in them and so on. But there has been no completely biodegradable polymer that's been developed. Even the ones that are so called biodegradable, you go back a few years later, supposedly they have biodegraded in the soil, and they're still there. And that's because micro organisms have not evolved to break down these polymers. As I said, the plastics have been used regularly only since 1950. And evolution takes a whole lot longer than that. So ideally, we'd like a micro organism that would break down these plastics into carbon dioxide and water, which are two innocuous compounds, molecules. But we have not been able to develop any completely biodegradable plastic yet, and it's going to take a long, long time for these plastics to break down.
Bernice Butler
Do you know of any interesting or significant studies, or research that's out there that is looking at what could possibly be an acceptable plastic alternative?
Dr. M.B. Kirkham
Well, that they're certainly looking at the biodegradable plastics, as they say, by trying to incorporate more organic material like starch and so on into them. My solution is that we just need to stop using plastic because even these biodegradable ones are going to take years and years to break down. And so my solution is to find alternatives for the plastics. For example, why can't we go back to glass greenhouses? Why do we have plastic greenhouses? Why can't we go back to some organic mulches into the plastic mulches? Why can't we go back to the ones that they used to use like paper or cardboard, things like that? I think there are alternatives that can be used. And I'm just a little dim about using plastics all in the environment. Now, someone once told me what we do need plastics for certain situations, like in medical devices, is I understand that some of the medical devices are plastics, and so we might need to continue using those. But as far as plastics, plastic bottles, when I was growing up, we got milk and water glass bottles. We didn't have plastic bottles. When I was growing up, we never had plastic bottles. We didn't we didn't carry a plastic bottle around with us. We went to water fountains and drank out of them. And so I facetiously say my family laughed at me. But I say we are our own plastic bottle, we drink out of a water bottle. And then when we get thirsty, we go and find a fountain again and drink, have a glass of water by our kitchen sink. So I think we can get rid of a lot of these plastics I know. And in England, they have a problem now where they're encouraging people that use glass bottles, and they have places where people can go and fill up their glass bottles with water. So why can't we replace these plastics with other materials and get rid of them? Almost entirely.
Bernice Butler
Exactly. Thank you so much, Marybeth. We're going to go to break after which we're going to have our second guest, Maddie Kaufman to join us. So we'll be right back on the other side to continue this very interesting discussion and add to it. Thank you.
Bernice Butler
Welcome back to Healthy Living Healthy Planet Radio. Today's show is on plastic pollution, the impacts of plastic on land and food. Now in addition to contaminating seafood, plastic particles in the ocean, can also injure and kill marine life, in turn, disrupting the ecosystems and food chains and leading to potential extinctions along the way. The Center for Biological Diversity says ocean plastics pollution is a global tragedy for our oceans and our sea life. Billions of pounds of plastic can be found in swirling convergences that make up about 40% of the world's ocean surfaces. And we learned last year from the plastic pollutions coalition that these patches of plastic are called gyres. And at the current rate, plastic is expected to outweigh all the fish in the sea by the year 2050. And here to help us unpack some of this is an on the ground volunteer from debris free oceans. And that is Maddie Kaufman. And we're very excited to have her. Maddie is going to join the conversation along with Dr. Marybeth Kirkham from Kansas State University Department of Agronomy, and they're both going to be with us to further explore this subject. Welcome a new to the segment, Maddie. We're so glad that you could join us today.
Madeline Kaufman
Awesome. Thanks so much for having me. Really excited to be here and be sharing the stage with you. Dr. Kirkham’s expertise is really incredible.
Bernice Butler
And to finish up on something that we were talking about before we went on the show break. And that is you've been telling us and getting us a lot of information as to how plastic pollution affects the soil, affects plants, and it just affects our lives all the way up the chain. But I want to ask you, what do you think are the biggest offenders or the biggest contributors to soil pollution from plastics?
Dr. M.B. Kirkham
Well, whenever these plastics are made, they're often additives that are added to them, they're dyes and chemicals. And so we have these chemicals that are attached to the plastics. And then as I said, once the plastics get into the soil, they attract these heavy metals. And that's because these micro plastics have a very small surface area and a very large absorptive surface area. And so if there are any toxic metals like cadmium in the soil, these heavy metals are going to be attached to the micro plastics. And as I showed in my experiment, if we have micro plastics in the soil along with heavy metals, the plant is going to take up more of the heavy metal than if the micro plastics are not there.
Bernice Butler
We want to now get some on the ground experience and talk more with Maddie. As I said, our guest Maddie Kaufman is a Program and Outreach Director at Debris Free Oceans, as well as being a research associate at a coral restoration lab at the University of Miami's Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science. Debris Free Oceans is a 501 (c) (3) nonprofit dedicated to inspiring local communities to responsibly manage the lifecycle of plastics and waste, but also sustainability consulting, outreach and education and cleanup events. Maddie recently received her Master's of Science degree in Marine Biology and Ecology at the University of Miami. And as well Maddie is a divemaster and environmental coordinator at South Beach divers. She organizes and leads conservation-oriented dive trips, including reef cleanups and core restoration expeditions. Again, thank you so much for being with us, Maddie. When we speak about plastic pollution on our waterways, what would you say are the three areas that we should focus on and why?
Madeline Kaufman
I'd say one of the big ones that you guys it sounds like kind of had someone already speak on last week is human health. That's the one I like to touch on a lot, because it really gets people's attention that aren't necessarily connected to the ocean. Another big one is the economy. There are a lot of studies documenting how much dirty beaches can have negative impacts on our economies. And then lastly, the one that kind of we mostly recognize is like animal ecosystem health and climate change, and kind of just preserving the natural world. And I just I wanted to tell a quick story, because I know you guys are tuning in, or broadcasting from Texas, we were talking about land animal impacts from plastics. And I always like sharing that. There's actually a case in Texas where a group of ranchers and a group of cotton-ginner's were actually advocating for a plastic bag ban because the government had banned bans. And this is because cattle is eating a bunch of plastic bags that was rolling around in the fields. And it was also covering the cotton plants. And so I yeah, I'm glad that you guys are doing a topic on soil and land life because there’s a lot of emphasis on plastics in the ocean, and it's just so much more far reaching than that.
Bernice Butler
And thank you so much for bringing that story up, Maddie. I really appreciate it because it's a very good example of how pervasive plastic pollution is in our society. But more importantly, it serves to remind people, how it's all around us and how it affects us in unthought-of ways individually. You know, now someone who's not necessarily a rancher would not have thought about that. Yet it's very pervasive. And seeing that or knowing that then impacts people of how it affects our food because you're not a rancher. You don't have to worry about the care for the cow. But you do eat what the cow produces. That's the whole purpose of Healthy Living Healthy Planet Radio is to help people explore, understand and realize how interrelated and unbreakable as we like to say, is the relationship between the health of the environment and our health. So thank you so much, Maddie for bringing that point on.
Madeline Kaufman
Yeah, of course. And I think we've been, The point where we talk about society as humans are separated from the planet. But that's not the case. And it shouldn't be that case. And we need to start decreasing that gap and having people realize that it's just not something we can separate. So I'm glad you guys do that on this show.
Bernice Butler
It really isn't. But it's interesting, though. Many times, if people think about it, they may realize it. But what we try to do is make sure we frame it for people, so they see it, you can't miss it. And health is usually one of those ways. But the other way is bringing to the table experts like you on the ground and Marybeth, with a research in science that she does. So again, thank you both. We’re just so excited that you're with us to help unpack all of this for our guests. Then Maddie, I want to go back to your experience on the ground. So how is plastic in the ocean contaminating our seafood? Break that down for our listeners and connect the dots for them.
Madeline Kaufman
Yeah, so I'm glad that the majority of this talk has been on microplastics because that is kind of where it really starts to affect our smaller fish species and bioaccumulation up the food chain. There are obviously cases that are terrible, have larger marine like megafauna and whales consuming larger pieces of plastic where in that case, a lot of times with larger plastics get kind of stuck in the digestive system. These animals think they're full, and they end up starving themselves. But when fish and other smaller animals eat these micro plastics, you don't necessarily see that and so these animals can live, which is good because we want our animals to stay alive. But that means they can live to pass these materials up the food chain. So with micro plastics, you can have your kind of secondary micro plastics, meaning it's breakoff from like a larger plastic product like a water bottle or something. And then you also have primary micro plastics. And that stuff that we kind of intentionally made to be that small, which used to exist in the form of micro beads, which was an additive but was banned in 2015. But they're also nurdles. I don't know if that word has been dropped on this show. So…
Bernice Butler
What are nurdles, I hadn't heard… that's new to me Maddie.
Madeline Kaufman
I know it's a funny word. And it sounds really cute, but they're not good. It's a small plastic pellet. And that's actually what plastic manufacturers buy and sell. And then when they received these shipments of it, they'll melt them and shape them into the plastic products that we see on the shelf.
Bernice Butler
I remember that the scientists last week didn't use the term “nurdle”, but they did let us know that it's how they are made and transported and sold.
Madeline Kaufman
Yeah, so they look just like fish eggs, which is what so many larger fish and marine birds consume. And then when you have this kind of starting at the base of the food chain, that's where you see biomagnification because they're like to kind of give a brief example, say you have a small fish eating a small amount of plastic and then you have a larger fish that needs to eat three of those smaller fish to meet its diet. So it now has three times the amount of plastic that that smaller fish had. And then you have an even bigger fish that you'd see five of the medium-sized fish and you just get that magnification of the food chain. And it's not just the actual plastic particles but like what Dr. Kirchner was touching on with her notes on how heavy metals latch onto these plastics. There are also in the water column A lot of pollutants that are just readily attached to the plastic more so than it likes the water. And so these, they kind of act like sponges for toxins almost and absorb these toxins, which also enter the fish. And also, along these lines Dr. Kirkman talked about the plastic additives. So we end up with these kind of toxic suits and plastics in our seafood and we can ultimately consume these. A study published this year out of a market in Australia, they sampled all sorts of seafood and every single sample had plastic in it.
Bernice Butler
Thank you Maddie. We'll be right back on the other side. We want to give a shout-out now to our sponsors that is Earth x, the world's largest environmental experience promoting environmental awareness through Expo conferences, Film Festival, interactive experiences and now Earth x streaming TV. Our other sponsor is Natural Awakenings Dallas Fort Worth magazine, the green healthy and sustainable living authority for the DFW Metroplex and North Texas communities. Prior to issues of Natural Awakenings can be found in all Whole Foods, Markets, Natural Grocers, Central Markets, Sunflower Shops, and many other locations, as well as available free for download online in at NADallas.com. Check them out. Our other sponsor is North Haven Garden, serving the Metroplex since 1961, the most respected horticultural establishments in North Texas offering gardening and plant education, concierge services, DYI classes and more And we're told the best Christmas trees in North Texas and our other sponsor Lynn Dental Care, practicing dentistry for over 38 years with a holistic approach. Looking at the whole body, specializing in periodontics, Dr. Lynn is board certified by the International Academy of Oral Medicine and Toxicology. Check them out at lynndentalcare.com Thank you, sponsors.
Bernice Butler
Welcome back to Healthy Living Healthy Planet radio. This is our last part of our segment on plastic pollution, the impacts of plastic on land and food. And we are back with Dr. Marybeth Kirkham from Kansas State University and with Maddie Kaufman from Debris Free Oceans. Welcome back. Ladies, we're so glad to have you. Thank you.
And before the break, Maddie was connecting the dots for us about how the plastic in the ocean is contaminating our seafood. And I think you did a very good job of explaining that. But a couple of questions on that to dive deeper and hopefully illustrate more the understanding for our listeners. And that is all of this plastic that the fish we eat are getting, even some of it being from eating other fish that have been just plastic. I'm assuming obviously, that when the fish makes it to our tables, that we too are getting some of that plastic. And then the other thing I want you to talk about is how does that plastic impact the health of fish? I have to think that if they eat too much, or so much or certain point that it could make them sick. So can you talk to us about those two issues?
Madeline Kaufman
Yes, so it definitely…once we have the fish at our table, there is a high likelihood that there could be plastic contamination in there. It's kind of varies by species in terms of what they eat, how often they eat. And it really depends on the size of the particles that they're eating. Fish can definitely excrete this plastic, if they're able to. It really, kind of, just depends on the physiology of the fish and the particles that they're eating. However, some of these micro plastics, as they break down more and more as plastic has been in existence, more and more, are reaching really small sizes where they can cross into the tissues and get translocated to the organs and the parts of the body that we end up eating. So there aren't really direct studies where it's like, oh, this seafood has plastic, and we know it got to this person, because I don't think it's really ethical to treat people with plastic contaminated food and then see if it's in their bodies. But we definitely found microplastics in the body and the seafood can definitely be a likely suspect of exposure. And then yeah, in terms of the health of the fish, like I kind of mentioned earlier, if they consume enough of this without actually exceeding it, they don't have the methods, Dr. Kirkham touched on this, there's no micro organisms to really break down this plastic. That's the case in the environment. And that's also the case in digestive system. And so when they're not able to break down this material in their stomach, they can think they're full and then will ultimately, can often starve themselves to death.
Bernice Butler
Maddie, I have to think that maybe shrimp and lobster also get the microplastics too?
Madeline Kaufman
Yes, such are like two of my favorite food. I think when it comes to being most concerned, I can't back this list with actual stats at the moment. But I want to say like theoretically, we should be the most concerned about, like kind of filter feeding like mussels and bivalves because their job is literally to filter out water and remove things that have not evolved to really be there or potential pollutants. So as they're passing a lot of this water through their system, I guess that kind of bivalve mollusks like that would be kind of the one to be most wary of.
Bernice Butler
And I'm going to throw this question out to both you and Marybeth. And that is what is the Nexus or the interconnection between plastic pollution and climate change?
Dr. M.B. Kirkham
That's an interesting question. I know you talked about the intense heat, a very warm summer that you're having in Texas and that they’re also having in Kansas. And then farmers can remove their plastic from the soil when it gets very hot. I really don't know the nexus. I do know for example, when these plastics are burned, they produce a lot of carbon dioxide and so we're contaminating the environment. And there's a colleague I know over in Australia , Dr. Keith Bristow who's working with biodegradable polymer and it's a patented product. But that is one of the advantages of this product. It just naturally breaks down in itself and oil and does not produce any carbon dioxide. So I think we have to look in that respect. But other than that, I can't think of any definite relationship between plastic pollution and climate change.
Bernice Butler
And Maddie, what's your take on that?
Madeline Kaufman
Yeah, so I actually, in terms of like the pollution standpoint, there kind of two points, I like to bring up one being that microplastic pollution can actually interfere with the oceans ability to absorb biomass or atmospheric CO2. So it's actually kind of potentially impacting our ability to buffer the impacts of anthropogenic emissions. And they're also, this hasn't been done in the in the field or proven in the field yet, but in a laboratory experiment, this one scientist put plastic under solar radiation mimicking the sun, in freshwater and in salt water, and actually found that the breaking of that plastic releases methane, which is one of the very most potent greenhouse gases. So that's the kind of, when it's the pollution standpoint, there's kind of those associations there. And I think you guys already had a bit on… a little bit of the lifecycle impacts of plastics where you had one from a seal here, but like, plastic production is such a big contributor to the climate crisis. So if we're able to combat this plastic pollution from the source, which is producing and using these single use plastics, which are made from oil, and gas, 99% of all of our plastics are made from petrochemical sources. By kind of combating that we can also come at the climate crisis, which I like to think is really empowering, because saying no to the bottle is more than just like helping this turtle with a straw on its nose, it's actually really having broader implications for accommodating the climate crisis too.
Bernice Butler
It really is. And that's what we have certainly uncovered and hope that our listeners are getting from this whole month's shows and episodes on plastic pollution. It's pervasive, it's all around us. True, it adds to the convenience of our lives, but it's also adding to the health or lack thereof of our lives. So I want to move on, though, now to something that I know you work a lot with, and that's our coral reefs. And they are a great example of the destructive power of plastic pollution. Can you tell us more about this plastic pollution? How it impacts coral reefs?
Madeline Kaufman
Yes, definitely. And this is such a novel field like I there might be 10 papers on corals and plastics. I mean, there's probably more than that, but very, very novel. And just like before I even go into the plastic pollution bit like climate change is the number one stressor facing our coral reefs. That's the general consensus of the community. But that does tie into plastics with plastic production, and use and disposal, recycling and incinerating also contributes to the whole life cycle is connected there. Also we're talking about how plastics absorb these contaminants in the water. And that can be a vector for disease. These plastics can travel around and transfer toxins along the reef and a study in the Pacific actually found that being in contact with plastic increase the likelihood of disease on a coral from 4 to 89%, which is astounding and we are experiencing one of the biggest disease outbreaks on the Florida coral reef track right now. So that's hugely important. There are studies looking at microplastics and corals again, very, very few very novel, they found that corals can eat these microplastics. Some actually spit them back out but we have found them lodged within kind of I guess, the gastro-vascular system, I think.
Bernice Butler
I cannot see that they could possibly be healthy or helpful. For coral reefs, especially given what we know about the effects of heat and climate change and global warming on coral reefs. I cannot possibly say microplastics made up of petrochemicals can possibly be.
Madeline Kaufman
Exactly. And one more study that was kind of interesting, actually found that coral reefs can taste plastic, they found that they'll selectively pull out plastic from the water column compared to sediments. And they looked at sediments fouled plastic and brand new plastic. And so our coral reefs actually like tasting and are seeking out pieces of plastic sometimes.
Bernice Butler
Amazing! You have both made us so much smarter today, as it relates to plastic pollution and its effect on our land and food. As I said, we really got smarter last week because we were diving into health. And you all have just really expanded our knowledge and I think our appreciation, or the impacts of plastic pollution on land and food and oceans and the things that are in them. So we very much thank you. We look forward to having you again on our show, we've been with Dr. Marybeth Kirkham from Kansas State University Department of Agronomy. And Maddie Kaufman with Debris Free Oceans in my home of Miami. Thank you adies, we really appreciate it. Thank you. And thank you, listeners for listening in today to Healthy Living and Healthy Planet Radio. The conversation starts here. But our goal is to continue in your home in your social circles, your workplaces at the water cooler and in the grocery checkout line, so that we can all work together to realize that healthy living is simply not possible without a healthy planet.
Our culture is a result of a trillion tiny acts taken by billions of people every day like yourself. And each of these tiny acts can seem insignificant, but they all add up one way or the other to the change that we each live through. This is your host, Bernice Butler. Thank you for listening today and join us again next week for more on Healthy Living Healthy Planet. Thank you.