Delivering a top quality surface finish, and stopping Paint Microplastics at Nieuwpoort in Belgium.

Hats off to the great team at our Distributor in the Benelux Region, Perspect Industrial Products B.V. ATEX-tools, for providing another innovative solution to its customers!  Follow this link to see the video 
https://www.linkedin.com/posts/atex-tools_atex-perspect-surfacepreparation-activity-7244241014322794496-jXwW?utm_source=share&utm_medium=member_desktop

Some of the world’s leading scientific experts on the subject of Microplastics, led by Prof. RICHARD THOMPSON OBE FRS, the “Godfather of Microplastics”, have come together to write an Article for the journal Science, bringing us up-to-date on the current state of scientific knowledge on the problem of Microplastic Pollution.  Link to the Article - https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.adl2746

You should check out the infographics in the Article, which are brilliant 👏 !

Some key insights 💡 in this new Article are

"To underscore the urgency, forecasting models indicate that, under business-as-usual scenarios, microplastic leakage to the environment could rise by 1.5 to 2.5 times by 2040.....The overarching message is clear, environmental concentrations and exposure of biota and humans are set to increase.”

“...there is clear evidence of growing public concern about the potential for such (human health) effects... and the wider human health and social justice implications and, given the persistence of microplastic and the near impossibility of their removal once dispersed in the environment, an increasing emphasis should be placed on taking a precautionary approach.”

“...Many actions (as solutions to microplastic pollution) to date have focused on downstream, end-of-pipe solutions,….There is growing evidence that upstream approaches will be most effective.”

“...policy action does not have to wait, it can be justified on the basis of the precautionary principle and so measures can, and arguably should, be taken now to reduce emissions."

This new Article is timely because Microplastic Pollution is a very live topic, not just in the world of science, but also now in the regulatory and political spheres.

Just yesterday, at the UN General Assembly in New York, the Nordic Co-operation on the Environment and Climate issued a Declaration calling for the proposed UN Plastics Treaty to include “….dedicated measures for regulating microplastics related to their source and routes of leakage…”. This comprises specific land and sea based sources of microplastics including Paint.

Link to Declaration 👉 https://lnkd.in/eUPW-xPc

The next step is #INC-5 in Busan, Korea in November, and (hopefully🤞) agreement on a UN #PlasticsTreaty which the Science Article says “…now brings tangible opportunity for international actions….in which dedicated provisions on microplastic pollution will be essential.”
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Fig. 2. Sources and pathways leading to environmental accumulation of microplastics.
(A) Human activities leading to six key sources of microplastics; (B) the relative contribution of each to the marine environment , together with (C) quantities reported in various environmental compartments. Note that inter-comparisons between environmental compartments should be made with caution because of variations in methods of sampling and enumeration.

This disturbing Financial Times article👇 asks if the rising rates of cancer in young people could be caused by #microplastic #pollution?

Recent scientific research is showing that cancer may no longer be "a disease of old age", given the rates of several cancers are rising faster among the young than among the old. As the FT reports, "Scientists at the American Cancer Society have confirmed the trend across a wider range of cancers, with statistics broadly suggesting that a Gen X or Millennial is more likely to develop certain types of the disease than her Baby-boomer parents."

While known cancer risk factors such as sedentary behaviour, changes in diet, rising levels of obesity and diabetes, may account for some of this increase, the presence of cancer patients in Harvard University’s Cancer Institute clinic who are young, fit and healthy, has led the scientists to look for environmental carcinogens capable of affecting entire generations.

The FT journalist, Anjana Ahuja goes on "Last year, New Zealand researchers showed that microplastics, now found everywhere and ingested from infancy onwards, could disrupt the gut lining. The prevalence of microplastic pollution since the 1960s — the tiny plastic particles come from consumer products and the breakdown of industrial waste — has the right timeline and might explain the compounding effect between generations, but it needs further investigation."

This tells us why the current negotiations of a #UN #Plastics #Treaty really, really matter!

Those negotiations will come to a head in Busan, Korea in November at #INC-5, when hopefully, Global Rules that seek to address problematic and avoidable plastic products, chemicals of concern and product design will be approved.

This includes Microplastics, and Pinovo applauds the fact that Microplastic Pollution is now firmly “on the agenda” in the UN Plastic Treaty negotiations.

https://on.ft.com/4gp0efo​

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