CEAC Support For Visiting UK Scientist Warns “we Are Breathing Plastic"

CEAC is impressed with the honesty of this scientist Matthew Shribman who follows the same path of other researchers who have uncovered the truth about the widespread epidemic now surfacing about ‘micro-plastics’ now found everywhere in our global environment and food chain and CEAC solidly add our support and discussion to this article.

https://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/SC2002/S00023/were-breathing-plastic-visiting-uk-scientist-warns.htm

“We’re breathing plastic” - visiting UK scientist warns

Tuesday, 11 February 2020, 9:20 am
Press Release: Matthew Shribman

11 February 2020

QUOTE;

Scientist Matthew Shribman is coming to New Zealand to spread his warning about humanity’s addiction to plastic

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Visiting science communicator Matthew Shribman has a stark warning for humanity: we are now breathing in plastic.

The renowned scientist arrives in New Zealand this Thursday (13th February) for four days to see family and speak with media.

Shribman’s visit comes off the back of his new documentary, Plastic in the Air, which was released online on January 20th.

The 14-minute documentary was filmed over a week-long sail between the UK and Denmark and documents the rising threat of microplastics in the ocean and the air we breathe.

Miniscule fragments of plastic, called nanoplastics, are so fine that they’re in the air we breathe. Once inhaled, these pieces of plastic can enter the human bloodstream.

The documentary dispels common myths about plastic, including the idea that plastic can be easily recycled, or simply removed from the ocean.

“The Great Pacific Garbage Patch is not a floating island of waste that can easily be cleaned up — that’s a myth,” Shribman says.

“It’s a colossal area full of tiny fragments of plastic, which are incredibly difficult to remove without harming ocean life such as plankton and algae. To make matters worse, most plastic sinks and is totally inaccessible.

Recycling isn’t the panacea most people think it is either, because plastic can only be recycled roughly 10 times, and a huge portion of waste put in recycling bins actually ends up in landfill.

“We’ve been sold a story that recycling is enough, and it’s a lie. Recycling plastic is like trying to heal a fatal wound by drinking the blood with a straw. We need to stop the plastic at the source before it destroys the natural world we depend upon for our survival. ”

UNQUOTE;

Firstly CEAC appreciate Scientist Matthew Shribman is coming to New Zealand to spread his warning about humanity’s addiction to plastic.

We wish to add our position on micro-plastics proliferation through our research, of other sources of micro-plastics that we have very serious concerns about, since finding that Global Governments have yet to take action about these ‘other micro-plastics’ not spoken of yet,- and their threat to humanity also.

• CEAC would welcome some of our Government MP’s may meet with this scientist this week and learn of this important issue first hand we hope?
• CEAC has bought this “micro-plastics” issue up in press releases before regarding the ‘truck tyre dust’ emissions issue when we use road transport over rail.

CEAC has long said; “Rail has no tyres only steel wheels on a steel track- whereas one truck can use up to 32 tyres”.

Considering with each one way trip, emitting up to 9 kgs of tyre dust during a trip from Wellington to Auckland, - we need to reduce truck freight to increase rail freight.

Please review the Ministry of Transport’s own figures of truck tyre dust emissions from each truck tyre - to find the real truth.

Emission Factors for Contaminants Released by Motor Vehicles in New Zealand [PDF, 3.3

With rail we have no serious ‘climate change transport emissions to deal with’.

Also - “the elephant in the room now is tyre ‘micro-plastic’ emissions”.

See our CEAC press release on Scoop in 2019; https://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/PO1912/S00168/ceac-climate-change-issues-for-rail-transport-plans.htm

QUOTE;

Tyre dust pollution is now globally considered as a ‘micro-plastics pandemic’, and is seen as the worst enemy causing climate change in the articles below.

These two documents below provide the evidence to show about “road dust from tyres is an overlooked pollutant of our environment and waterways.
Tyre dust is micro-plastics.
https://ec.europa.eu/environment/integration/research/newsalert/pdf/277na4_en.pdf
https://pubs.acs.org/doi/abs/10.1021/es400871j
• If the world is to limit the effects of global warming, drastic changes must be made and the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report https://www.ipcc.ch/sr15/ Executive Summary.

• All must be taken seriously now along with; “Comparison of Tire and Road Wear Particle Concentrations in Sediment for Watersheds in France, Japan, and the United States by Quantitative Pyrolysis GC/MS Analysis” report on sediments for watersheds.
https://pubs.acs.org/doi/abs/10.1021/es400871j
QUOTE: “Comparison of Tire and Road Wear Particle Concentrations in Sediment for Watersheds in France, Japan, and the United States by Quantitative Pyrolysis GC/MS Analysis
Unquote;

So less ‘transport micro-plastic dust’ is considered as a major plus - and only ‘steel wheels on a steel track’ will do the job to deal with Climate change.

So if we lower the micro-plastics and climate change emissions in our environment we will make our lives and environment healthy again.

So we advocate that our Government use the $6.8 Billion dollars to restore rail again to become the ‘prime mover of NZ’s freight and passenger service again.

UNQUOTE;

CEAC say’s; - This issue must include; https://ec.europa.eu/environment/integration/research/newsalert/pdf/277na4_en.pdf
According to the European Commission Environmental Integration Research the road dust (tyre dust) evidence is confirmed under the heading “Road dust; an overlooked pollutant.” Unsustainable high use of 90% truck freight carried must be lowered and rail encouraged to balance land transport use to lower these Greenhouse gas emissions for a more sustainable land transport in future. Micro-plastics from truck tyre dust would also be reduced while restoring water quality and lowering climate change.

IMPORTANT TO CONSIDER;

We must also stop the discharge of those tyre dust micro-plastics ‘road runoff’ into our coastal estuaries as this allows the microplastics to be carried by tidal/current flows to our polar ice shelves and snowfields which will increase snow and ice melting as a team of German scientists two weeks ago discovered tyre particulates have been discovered ice the polar snow and icecaps. https://phys.org/news/2017-02-tiny-plastic-particles-tyres-clogging.html

https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/app.45701

(QUOTE) “According to the Rubber Manufacturers Association, each tire produced takes 7 gallons of oil”

https://ec.europa.eu/environment/integration/research/newsalert/pdf/277na4_en.pdf

According to the European Commission Environmental Integration Research the road dust (tyre dust) evidence is confirmed under the heading “Road dust; an overlooked pollutant.”

Many scientific studies have linked particulate air pollution to daily death rates in cities.

These two documents provide the evidence to show about “road dust from tyres is an overlooked pollutant of our waterways.

Tyre dust is micro-plastics.

Clearly climate change is here. – Government must act now.

We welcome our Government asking Scientist Matthew Shribman to a meeting with them while in New Zealand to hear his valid warning about humanity’s addiction to plastic, and learn how best we can tackle the issue for our future generations.

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