{"id":493,"date":"2017-03-24T13:10:41","date_gmt":"2017-03-24T17:10:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/carleton.ca\/environmentalscience\/?p=493"},"modified":"2025-02-26T14:05:55","modified_gmt":"2025-02-26T19:05:55","slug":"your-laundry-may-be-to-blame-for-tiny-plastic-water-pollutants-study-indicates","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/environmentalscience\/2017\/your-laundry-may-be-to-blame-for-tiny-plastic-water-pollutants-study-indicates\/","title":{"rendered":"Your laundry may be to blame for tiny plastic water pollutants, study indicates"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<section class=\"w-screen px-6 cu-section cu-section--white ml-offset-center md:px-8 lg:px-14\">\n    <div class=\"space-y-6 cu-max-w-child-5xl  md:space-y-10 cu-prose-first-last\">\n\n            <div class=\"cu-textmedia flex flex-col lg:flex-row mx-auto gap-6 md:gap-10 my-6 md:my-12 first:mt-0 max-w-5xl\">\n        <div class=\"justify-start cu-textmedia-content cu-prose-first-last\" style=\"flex: 0 0 100%;\">\n            <header class=\"font-light prose-xl cu-pageheader md:prose-2xl cu-component-updated cu-prose-first-last\">\n                                    <h1 class=\"cu-prose-first-last font-semibold !mt-2 mb-4 md:mb-6 relative after:absolute after:h-px after:bottom-0 after:bg-cu-red after:left-px text-3xl md:text-4xl lg:text-5xl lg:leading-[3.5rem] pb-5 after:w-10 text-cu-black-700 not-prose\">\n                        Your laundry may be to blame for tiny plastic water pollutants, study indicates\n                    <\/h1>\n                \n                                \n                            <\/header>\n\n                    <\/div>\n\n            <\/div>\n\n    <\/div>\n<\/section>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/ottawacitizen.com\/technology\/science\/your-laundry-may-be-to-blame-for-tiny-plastic-pollutants-study-indicates\">http:\/\/ottawacitizen.com\/technology\/science\/your-laundry-may-be-to-blame-for-tiny-plastic-pollutants-study-indicates<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<h1 class=\"wp-block-heading entry-title\">Your laundry may be to blame for tiny plastic water pollutants, study indicates<\/h1>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"entry-details byline\">\n<div class=\"story_details\">\n<div class=\"author-wrap\">\n<div><a class=\"author\" href=\"http:\/\/ottawacitizen.com\/author\/tomspears1\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" id=\"grav-4643d760f8ad1b8d11ed9abf99f08146-0\" class=\"avatar avatar-33 grav-hashed\" src=\"http:\/\/1.gravatar.com\/avatar\/4643d760f8ad1b8d11ed9abf99f08146?s=50&amp;d=http%3A%2F%2F1.gravatar.com%2Favatar%2Fad516503a11cd5ca435acc9bb6523536%3Fs%3D33&amp;r=G\" alt=\"\" width=\"33\" height=\"33\"> <span class=\"name\">Tom Spears, Ottawa Citizen<\/span><br>\n<span class=\"author-more\">More from Tom Spears, Ottawa Citizen<\/span><\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"byline-dates\">Published on: March 23, 2017 | Last Updated: March 23, 2017 10:37 AM EDT<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n\n\n<div class=\"entry-content p402_premium\">\n<figure id=\"post-978313media-978313\" class=\"align-none wp-caption post-img\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-post-image\" src=\"http:\/\/wpmedia.ottawacitizen.com\/2017\/03\/may-10-2010-water-levels-on-the-ottawa-river-are-lower-th.jpeg?quality=55&amp;strip=all&amp;w=840&amp;h=630&amp;crop=1\" alt=\"Water levels on the Ottawa River are lower than normal for the this time of year. Bedrock dries in a setting sun under the Champlain Bridge Monday, May 10, 2010.\" width=\"840\" height=\"630\"><figcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\"><span class=\"img-caption\">A new study of microscopic plastic in the Ottawa River pinpoints tiny synthetic fibres from clothing such as synthetic fleece.<\/span> <span class=\"img-author\">Darren Brown \/ DARREN BROWN\/QMI AGENCY<\/span><p><\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<div class=\"article-actions\"><a class=\"icon-share\" href=\"http:\/\/ottawacitizen.com\/technology\/science\/your-laundry-may-be-to-blame-for-tiny-plastic-pollutants-study-indicates#\" data-modal-target=\"#modal-share\">Share<\/a><a class=\"icon-adjust\" href=\"http:\/\/ottawacitizen.com\/technology\/science\/your-laundry-may-be-to-blame-for-tiny-plastic-pollutants-study-indicates#\">Adjust<\/a><a class=\"icon-comment\" href=\"http:\/\/ottawacitizen.com\/technology\/science\/your-laundry-may-be-to-blame-for-tiny-plastic-pollutants-study-indicates#\">Comment<\/a><a class=\"icon-print\">Print<\/a><\/div>\n<p><!-- \/ article-actions --><\/p>\n<div>\n<p>As tiny bits of plastic build up&nbsp;in lakes and rivers, there\u2019s a new suggestion that everyone has been wrong about where most of this plastic pollution comes from.<\/p>\n<p>The common perception is that little round&nbsp;\u201cbeads\u201d of plastic from skin care products and toothpaste are to blame.<\/p>\n<p>But there\u2019s now evidence that the real source is much simpler. It\u2019s&nbsp;your laundry.<\/p>\n<p>A <a href=\"http:\/\/www.facetsjournal.com\/article\/facets-2016-0070\">new study of microscopic plastic<\/a> in the Ottawa River pinpoints tiny synthetic fibres from&nbsp;clothing, says the study\u2019s main author, Jesse Vermaire, an environmental scientist at ÐÓ°ÉÔ­´´ University.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI was surprised just how prevalent they are. When we first started looking for micro plastics we were looking for microbeads. We did see a few of those, like a few per cent. One to five per cent of all the plastics we found were microbeads but fibres were most of the plastics.\u201d<\/p>\n<div id=\"fsk_splitbox_1715_onscreen\">\n<div id=\"fsk_splitbox_1715\" class=\"  fsk_splitbox_1715     sb-opened\"><iframe id=\"fsk_frame_splitbox\" frameborder=\"0\" height=\"150\" name=\"fsk_frame_splitbox\" width=\"300\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\"><\/iframe><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>Synthetic fibres made up 70 to 100 per cent of the plastic in&nbsp;various samples. The study by ÐÓ°ÉÔ­´´ and Ottawa Riverkeeper is published this week in the online journal <a href=\"http:\/\/www.facetsjournal.com\/\">FACETS<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThat\u2019s what they are also finding in the Great Lakes too, and sediment in the Great Lakes,\u201d Vermaire said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhere they are coming from we\u2019re not exactly sure, but other studies have shown they are from washing synthetic clothing \u2014 fleeces for example. (They) release hundred of fibres every time you wash them.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The effects of microscopic plastic in water and sediment are still not well understood.<\/p>\n<p>Most of the discussion in the past few years has focused on beads&nbsp;alone, Vermaire notes. \u201cGovernment and industry have taken steps to reduce the number of those, to phase them out. That\u2019s a good thing because there is no reason to have them in there anyway, so why introduce a plastic to the water?<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBut these fibres, I think, would be much &nbsp;more difficult to control. If they are coming from clothing, that\u2019s lot of different sources.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The beads were in a range of personal care products ranging from some brands of toothpaste to exfoliating skin care products. The theory was that tiny bits of plastic would scour surfaces.<\/p>\n<p>Vermaire\u2019s group found that the Ottawa River has plastics in higher concentrations that the Great Lakes, but less&nbsp;than in many tributaries of the lakes, or in major U.S. Rivers. Vermaire describes microplastic in water as \u201cubiquitous.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The concentration here is higher downstream from Ottawa\u2019s sewage treatment plant than above it, strongly suggesting that plastic is washing down drains from the city.<\/p>\n<p>Most appear red and blue, though it is also possible that light-coloured fibres are difficult&nbsp;to see under a microscope.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Your laundry may be to blame for tiny plastic water pollutants, study indicates Tom Spears, Ottawa Citizen More from Tom Spears, Ottawa Citizen Published on: March 23, 2017 | Last Updated: March 23, 2017 10:37 AM EDT A new study of microscopic plastic in the Ottawa River pinpoints tiny synthetic fibres from clothing such as [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-493","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"acf":{"cu_post_thumbnail":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/environmentalscience\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/493","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/environmentalscience\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/environmentalscience\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/environmentalscience\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/environmentalscience\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=493"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/environmentalscience\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/493\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":512,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/environmentalscience\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/493\/revisions\/512"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/environmentalscience\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=493"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/environmentalscience\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=493"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/environmentalscience\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=493"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}