Tag: Microplastics

  • Cutting boards can produce microparticles when cutting vegetables: Study

    Cutting boards can produce microparticles when cutting vegetables: Study

    However, the toxicity test revealed that the polyethylene or wood microparticles released during shredding had no significant effect on the viability of mouse cells. Most cutting boards are made of rubber, bamboo, wood or plastic. Over time, these kitchen utensils develop grooves and cut marks from grinding, slicing and chopping food. Recently, researchers have shown…

  • Researchers find a new way to remove microplastics from water

    Researchers find a new way to remove microplastics from water

    As Princeton’s vice dean for innovation and the Susan Dod Brown Professor of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, Craig Arnold collaborates with his lab to develop new materials, such as aerogels, for use in engineering. He got the idea one day while attending a faculty meeting. “I was sitting there staring at the bread in my…

  • Building green habits: Know your microplastics

    Building green habits: Know your microplastics

    In my previous columns, I have looked at simple frameworks for making small but impactful sustainable changes in our daily lives. The goal was to be more aware of our consumption habits and create less waste. In this column, I wanted to zoom in on another aspect – something that happens while we use certain…

  • Textile recycling plant from the Lapland paper mill

    Textile recycling plant from the Lapland paper mill

    Stora Enso’s former Veitsiluoto plant in Kemi, Lapland, will be revived in 2021 after the plant is closed. Infinited Fiber, which treats textile waste, has announced that it will invest around € 400 million in converting an old paper mill into a textile fiber plant. The company’s recycled fiber technology converts cellulosic materials, such as…

  • A Dane abroad: If you use makeup, you probably eat plastic

    A Dane abroad: If you use makeup, you probably eat plastic

    In the August 21 issue of Politiken, Jonas Pröschold discussed the results of an international report from 2018, which stated that microplastics were found in the digestive systems of 100 percent of the participants (people) from eight different countries. Pröschold further cited a research project from 2020 from SDU, which concludes that there is no…

  • September without plastic

    September without plastic

    “September without plastic” (in Icelandic: Plastlaus September) is an annual awareness-raising campaign that was first run in September 2017. The campaign has been successful and it has become clear that Iceland is ready and willing to make environmental changes. The campaign is carried out annually, but its planning and support activities are spread over the…

  • Science Round-Up: ‘Trojan Attack’ cancer therapy attracts huge investment in human trials

    Science Round-Up: ‘Trojan Attack’ cancer therapy attracts huge investment in human trials

    All laboratory mice healed “The data is very promising. “Early trials were surprisingly effective – in fact, all tumor-bearing mice were cured after treatment with the first version of the drug.” said Behrendt. “Our experiments show that the protein receptor we use was particularly active in connective tissue cancer cells and in certain subtypes of…

  • Thousands of artificial turf are threatened by EU bans this year

    Thousands of artificial turf are threatened by EU bans this year

    The rubber granulate that is found in thousands of artificial turf in Sweden spreads microplastics in nature and the EU therefore makes a decision this year to either ban rubber granules or provide mandatory rules that reduce the spread. The Swedish Football Association, together with Nordic neighbors, has fought against the ban as they see…

  • Tourism fills beaches in the Mediterranean with rubbish

    Tourism fills beaches in the Mediterranean with rubbish

    Up to 80 percent of all rubbish on popular beaches in the Mediterranean seems to come from tourism. Cigarette butts, chip packets, plastic lids, disposable cutlery and straws are among the objects that can be found on well-visited beaches in the Mediterranean. And tourism seems to be behind much of the littering. It has an…

  • Tuesday’s magazines: AstraZeneca vaccine for most in Finland, less passports, more snow, microplastics on the beaches

    Tuesday’s magazines: AstraZeneca vaccine for most in Finland, less passports, more snow, microplastics on the beaches

    Finland’s largest daily Helsingin Sanomat reports that most healthy working-age Finns receive a vaccine developed by AstraZeneca and the University of Oxford Mika Rämet, Director of the Vaccine Research Center, University of Tampere. AstraZeneca has promised to produce three billion doses of the vaccine this year. That would be enough to vaccinate 1.5 billion people.…

  • New mapping of microplastics in the Baltic Sea

    New mapping of microplastics in the Baltic Sea

    Emissions of microplastics in society must be reduced and more measures are needed. This is the opinion of researchers from, among others, IVL Swedish Environmental Institute who participated in the project. The survey shows, among other things, that more than half of the microplastics found in the Baltic Sea get there via stormwater and wastewater.…

  • Rubber surfaces in playgrounds can be phased out

    Rubber surfaces in playgrounds can be phased out

    Uppsala municipality has decided that the municipality’s playgrounds will be fossil-free in a few years, which the rubber substrates are not; they can also leak microplastics into the environment. The rubber pads are good for shock absorption when children fall, and good for walking and riding in a wheelchair. We will probably leave them, says…

  • Science Round-Up: Eyes jump over fake news headlines faster than real-time research

    Science Round-Up: Eyes jump over fake news headlines faster than real-time research

    A study conducted by researchers at the University of Copenhagen and Aalborg University reveals that people look at fake news headlines for shorter periods than what would be considered normal. About 55 test participants were given a pseudo-task to rate 108 news headlines and determine which ones were the most recent – without being told…

  • Aquatic micro-plastics, aquatic organisms all over Finland

    Aquatic micro-plastics, aquatic organisms all over Finland

    Finnish aquatic animals, lake and seabeds, fish and molluscs have been contaminated with microplastics, according to a four-year research project recently decided by the Finnish Environment Institute (SYKE) and the University of Eastern Finland. “The smaller the microplastic studied, the higher concentrations were observed because the plastics continuously decompose into smaller particles in the environment,”…