Pleading for the use of biodegradable polymers in favor of marine environments and to avoid an asbestos-like problem for the future

Our plain-English summary of Pleading for the use of biodegradable polymers in favor of marine environments and to avoid an asbestos-like problem for the future, by M. Kubota, K. Takayama, D. Namimoto (Applied Microbiology and Biotechnology, 2005).

The study

• Authors: M. Kubota, K. Takayama, D. Namimoto
• Journal: Applied Microbiology and Biotechnology
• Published: 2005;67(4):469-76
• Type of article: Review
• Cited by: 18 articles, as counted by NIH iCite
• Read it: PubMed · Publisher

Abstract

Research results about the movement and accumulation of floating marine debris drifting throughout the world's oceans are reviewed in this paper. A mechanism for this accumulation and movement is strongly associated with surface currents consisting of the Ekman drift and the geostrophic current, because all floating marine debris is passive to surface currents. The basic published mechanism for the North Pacific is common across the world's ocean. After marine debris accumulates in the narrow Ekman convergence zone, it is moved to the east by geostrophic currents. The most important thing is that floating marine debris concentrates in some specific regions, independent of the initial quantity of marine debris. In order to resolve this problem and to avoid an asbestos-like problem, the use of biodegradable polymers is important in our daily life.

In plain English

This mini-review was about floating ocean debris, mostly plastic. It did not study asbestos or human health, and it mentioned asbestos only as a comparison. The authors reviewed earlier computer simulations of how surface currents move floating debris and added simulations of their own using satellite data. They placed 5,954 imaginary debris items across the North Pacific and tracked them for five years. After one year, debris was hardly found south of 20° N, and most of it sat in a belt between 20° and 30° N. Items northeast of Hawaii rose from 496 to 2,715 over five years. By then 2,164 items had been stranded on coasts, the most (961) on the east coast of the Philippines. Simulations of the world's oceans showed debris gathering in the mid-latitudes of other ocean basins as well. The simulation left out small eddies, and the authors said results for other oceans need to be confirmed by ship surveys. They concluded that continuing to make the same plastics would create "an asbestos-like problem for the future" and called for wider use of biodegradable polymers.

We wrote this plain-English summary from the full article with the help of AI, and a second AI model checked each sentence against the article. It is not the authors' wording; the abstract and the article are their own account.

What the study did and found

• Design: Mini-review of earlier numerical simulations of floating marine debris, with new computer simulations by the authors using satellite data
• Who was studied: No people were studied. The simulation used 5,954 simulated ('pseudo') debris items placed on a 1° by 1° grid across the North Pacific, tracked for 5 years, plus further simulations of the world's oceans.
• Exposure: No asbestos exposure was studied. The subject was floating marine debris, mostly plastic, treated as a passive tracer carried by wind-driven Ekman drift and geostrophic currents.
• Main results:
  • In the North Pacific simulation, debris was hardly found south of 20° N after 1 year, and most was concentrated in a belt between 20° and 30° N (except east of 210° E).
  • Items in the mid-latitudes area rose from 518 at the start (516 in Table 2) to 2,194 within 1 year, then fell to 994 after 5 years. Items northeast of Hawaii rose from 496 to 1,896 after 2 years and 2,715 after 5 years.
  • Because some debris was stranded, the total number of items afloat fell from 5,954 to 3,790. After 5 years, 2,164 items had been stranded, the largest number (961) on the east coast of the Philippines.
  • Debris stranded on the west coast of North America came from a small area, the Gulf of Alaska. Debris accumulated north of Hawaii came from various areas, including east of Japan.
  • World-ocean simulations showed similar mid-latitude convergence in other basins. In the Atlantic, especially the South Atlantic, debris concentrated in the central part rather than in a band along a line of latitude.
• The authors' conclusion: The authors concluded that large amounts of marine debris concentrate in specific open-ocean regions far from where the debris comes from. They said that if the same plastics continue to be produced, the problem will become irreparable, which they called an asbestos-like problem for the future, and that biodegradable polymers should be widely used.
• Limitations the authors state:
  • The simulation did not include the effect of small eddies missing from the satellite-derived current field.
  • There are very few ship sighting surveys outside the North Pacific, so the results for other oceans still need to be confirmed.

Related studies

• Biodegradable mesoporous calcium-magnesium silicate-polybutylene succinate scaffolds for osseous tissue engineering — X. Zhang, C. Zhang, et al. (2015)
• Polymers as selective antagonists of hemolytic asbestos fibers — R.J. Schnitzer, G. Bunescu (1970)
• Polymer coating on carbon nanotubes into Durobeads is a novel strategy for human environmental safety — F. Ito, H. Hisashi, et al. (2018)
• Man-made respirable-sized organic fibers: what do we know about their toxicological profiles? — D.B. Warheit, K.L. Reed, et al. (2001)
• Pulmonary effects in rats inhaling size-separated chrysotile asbestos fibres or p-aramid fibrils: differences in cellular proliferative responses — D.B. Warheit, M.A. Hartsky, et al. (1996)
• Lung proliferative and clearance responses to inhaled para-aramid RFP in exposed hamsters and rats: comparisons with chrysotile asbestos fibers — D.B. Warheit, S.I. Snajdr, et al. (1997)

Browse return to medical research.