Russian scientists have discovered the ability of plastic to accumulate heavy metals. This can have an even more negative impact on marine flora and fauna.
Specialists from the Galimov Carbon Geochemistry Laboratory of the Vernadsky Institute of Geochemistry and Analytical Chemistry studied biodegradable, “non-biological” and plastic collected on the Mediterranean coast.
All types of plastic accumulate harmful metals when interacting with water. This is especially true of biodegradable plastics, which are used to make food packaging, disposable tableware and garbage bags.
The researchers concluded that garbage not only pollutes the oceans, but harms marine creatures, triggering the development of diseases and mutations due to heavy metals, among which lead, molybdenum and chromium are the most dangerous.
“An increase in the concentration of toxic metals leads to non-infectious chronic diseases, which reduces life expectancy,” Olga Kuznetsova, senior researcher at the Galimov Laboratory of Carbon Geochemistry of the Geochemical Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences, emphasizes the problem.
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