SEA creatures across the globe are being poisoned by tiny plastic pellets
floating in the ocean. Japanese researchers have found that these pellets adsorb
toxic chemicals from the seawater. The poisons enter the food chain when marine
animals eat them.
“It’s a frightening prospect,” says David Laist, a policy analyst at the US
Marine Mammal Commission in Washington DC. “This opens a whole new window of
concern.”
Chemicals companies often produce polymers in the form of pellets just a few
millimetres in diameter, which are shipped to manufacturers to be melted and
moulded into plastic products. But thousands of tonnes…
