Research the concentration of microplastics in Lake Erie rivals the Great Pacific Garbage Patch.
The particles are present in all five Great Lakes, but there鈥檚 no coordinated, region-wide effort to monitor the pollutant.
Now, the International Joint Commission, which helps the United States and Canada protect shared waters, has proposed to measure and report on microplastics across the lakes.
Scientists with the organization say it鈥檚 an important step to understand how plastics are impacting Great Lakes ecosystems.
鈥淕lobally, we think there's quite a lot of microplastics,鈥� said Rebecca Rooney, a member of ICJ鈥檚 Great Lakes Science Advisory Board and an associate professor with the University of Waterloo. 鈥淏ut we need more monitoring to be able to really put a fine point on how much there is and where it is within the Great Lakes.鈥�
Microplastic pollution in the Great Lakes
are tiny pieces of plastics less than 5 millimeters long. They can come from plastic bags and bottles as they break down, from tires that wear away on pavement, or they can take the form of microfibers that shed from clothing.
While it鈥檚 unclear just how much microplastic litters the lakes, Rooney says it鈥檚 likely a lot.
鈥淲e know that it's in the water, it's in the sediment and it's in the organisms that live in the Great Lakes,鈥� she said. 鈥淲e know that some of the highest concentration of microplastic particles in fish tissues that have ever been reported come from the Great Lakes.鈥�
"Some of the highest concentration of microplastic particles in fish tissues that have ever been reported come from the Great Lakes.鈥�Rebecca Rooney
That鈥檚 the case for a few reasons, she said.
The Great Lakes aren鈥檛 as vast as the oceans, so the microplastic particles are contained to a smaller area. And the Great Lakes region is highly developed.
鈥淪o there's a lot of potential sources of microplastics going into the Great Lakes,鈥� Rooney said. 鈥淲e just really need more research to understand the dynamics of microplastics once they're in the Great Lakes.鈥�
Because once they鈥檙e in the Great Lakes, they don鈥檛 just have the potential to do environmental damage, they could also harm human health.
shows people can inhale microplastics, ingest it through food (including small amounts from ) and absorb it through the skin. And as they accumulate in the human body, they can cause health issues like lung cancer, asthma and inflammatory bowel disease.
A system to monitor microplastics
Right now, Rooney says scientists across the region use different methods to collect and identify microplastic samples.
鈥淲e're sort of trying to compare apples to oranges,鈥� she said. 鈥淲hat we have proposed are a series of monitoring standard operating procedures, which if people follow, will bring us to more of an apples to apples comparison.鈥�
Under the , the U.S. and Canada already work together to monitor other aspects of the lakes鈥� health.
Rooney says adding microplastics to the menu of information gathered would go a long way in protecting the water quality and usability of the lakes for years to come.
鈥淲e've had a really successful track record of protecting our Great Lakes over the last hundred years,鈥� she said. 鈥淎nd we hope that adding microplastics into the ongoing monitoring will help us have a better understanding of the risk they pose to the Great Lakes ecosystem and the people who live around the Great Lakes.鈥�
