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Pristine Lakes Are Filled With Toxins (bbc.com)
Much of the focus on plastic pollution centres on our oceans. Emerging evidence shows it's also a problem in freshwater, which may even be the source. From a report: "Freshwater systems are increasingly studied but still at a much smaller scale than oceans," says Filella. This may simple be due to the fact that initial studies focused on the ocean -- and so research proposals and grants followed suit. It didn't take long for the Geneva team to find what they were looking for. Filella and colleagues collected over 3,000 samples. They went on to analyse 670 of these, revealing some worrying results. Many of these samples contained hazardous and toxic elements including cadmium, mercury and lead -- in some cases in "very high concentrations", as outlined in a 2018 paper in the journal Frontiers of Environmental Science.
A large proportion of these toxic elements are now banned or restricted. This "reflected the age and residence time of the plastic stock in the lake," says Filella: the plastic waste has been building up over several decades. And as we know, plastic can take hundreds of years to degrade. [...] Lake Geneva is not an outlier. Other lakes show similar levels of pollution. Italy's Lake Garda, for example, also has high levels of plastic waste. A sample from the northern part of the lake contained 1,000 large plastic particles and 450 smaller particles (microplastics) per square metre. [...] It is now becoming clearer that much of the plastic that ends up in the ocean starts off in freshwater bodies in the first place -- estimates suggest it could be as much as 70-80%.
A large proportion of these toxic elements are now banned or restricted. This "reflected the age and residence time of the plastic stock in the lake," says Filella: the plastic waste has been building up over several decades. And as we know, plastic can take hundreds of years to degrade. [...] Lake Geneva is not an outlier. Other lakes show similar levels of pollution. Italy's Lake Garda, for example, also has high levels of plastic waste. A sample from the northern part of the lake contained 1,000 large plastic particles and 450 smaller particles (microplastics) per square metre. [...] It is now becoming clearer that much of the plastic that ends up in the ocean starts off in freshwater bodies in the first place -- estimates suggest it could be as much as 70-80%.
While people are going on about "Climate Change" the REAL IMMEDIATE DANGER is local pollution! Where do you think your water comes from? You are worried about lower Manhattan getting flooded in 2050 while you drink your toxic water! Complete insanity.
Can we get rid of MsMash please? All they post is emotionally based stories, none of this MEANS anything.
I cannot utilize the knowledge that water is polluted to create anything at all, there has been no innovation here, nothing was created or constructed. No one programmed anything, there are no chips, electricity or engineering to ANY ARTICLE FROM MSMASH EVER.
Whoever they are, their just a muck raker "zomfg, did you hear about the water, LOLZ, its like totally like polluted *japanese giggle*" All they want to do is stir our emotions and not our minds.
BAN MSMASH and get someone with a hint of intelligence in that seat doing proper research into news for nerds.
Pristine Lakes Are Filled With Toxins
How about, "Lakes Thought To Be Pristine Are Filled With Toxins".
It must have been something you assimilated. . . .
Virgin plastic doesn't use Cd, Hg, or Pb for catalyzing or production of plastic.,
Yes it does. Hg is used as a catalyst in chlorine production, and ends up in PVC. Pb is used as a stabilizer, and Cd is used to create yellow and red pigments.
There's nothing that says that manufacturers can't make their stuff and do it clean as possible. It's a false dichotomy created by the business community that want to keep their bottom lines fat by passing the costs on the commons.
This is a prime example where government regulations do good.
And so what if things become more expensive. We don't need so much crap in our lives anyway and the health benefits and health savings costs to our society far outweigh any costs.
One of the lakes specifically mentioned, Lake Geneva, is not only not pristine but there is no way that anyone could ever think it would be! It's a large lake with several large towns on the shore. Geneva in particular used to use the water in a factory (the original cause of the famous Jet d'eau) and it has ferries which criss-cross between the shore towns. This is not even close to being "pristine".
What have you done to clean up the part of the mess that you made by living in first world conditions?
I've written my representatives frequently to ask that we not shit where we eat. As is my right and responsibility in a democratic republic.
Pollution is also the cost of supplying first world living conditions.
I'm not sure if leaded gasoline was really all that necessary to have a high standard of living. I don't think overfishing is the necessary consequence to feed our populace. And I don't think fertilizer run-off into our freshwater ecosystem is the only way to operate a farm. I think frequent chemical spills is a symptom of mismanagement, poor oversight, incompetence, and criminal negligence.
Obviously you partake, since you're using a computing device connected to the internet
Perhaps the purchase price of my computer did not include all of the necessary the costs. Paying to clean up our environment through tax dollars is a bit like padding the income of every business. As a consumer, in the end I will have to pay.
It is way cheaper for a business to avoid spills than for it to accumulate over decades. We're at a point that we can't force businesses to clean up some of the biggest sites as it would bankrupt them before they could finish the job. I propose that we not let things get to the point where we need the government to step in and clean it up.
“Common sense is not so common.” — Voltaire
Pollution is the cost of doing business...
It's not business that's the problem. The problems are deregulation, negligence, inadequate safety standards, cost cutting, mistakes, ignorance, carelessness, indifference and disregard.
... So maybe business should pay to clean it up
It's a start. If the executives at fault lose their own money and go to jail, that would make a world of difference.