This Friday’s Environmental Dynamics Seminar features King’s Research Associate Stephanie Wright from the Department of Analytical & Environmental Sciences. Stephanie will speak on microplastics in the oceans and their connection to human health. Join us at 5:!5pm in the Pyramid Room (4th Floor, King’s Building, Strand Campus) for a fascinating talk followed by informal wine and nibbles!
Plastic is a material of enormous benefit to today’s society, yet it is also an environmental pollutant of global concern. In the environment, plastic waste fragments into microsized pieces, known as microplastics. Microplastics are ingested by a range of marine species, and have the capacity to exert a range of biological impacts. They also have the potential to transfer endogenous chemical additives or adsorbed priority pollutants. Recently, microplastics have been reported in foods destined for human consumption, and there is suggestion that these particles can become airborne, highlighting possible human exposure pathways via diet and inhalation. Here, I shall present findings from my PhD research, which focused on the impacts of microplastics on an ecologically-important marine polychaete worm, continuing into my current research in microplastics and human health.
