Viruses Survive in Fresh Water by 'Hitchhiking' on Plastic, Study Finds (theguardian.com) 24
Dangerous viruses can remain infectious for up to three days in fresh water by hitchhiking on plastic, researchers have found. From a report: Enteric viruses that cause diarrhoea and stomach upsets, such as rotavirus, were found to survive in water by attaching to microplastics, tiny particles less than 5mm long. They remain infectious, University of Stirling researchers found, posing a potential health risk. Prof Richard Quilliam, lead researcher on the project at Stirling University, said: "We found that viruses can attach to microplastics and that allows them to survive in the water for three days, possibly longer." While previous research had been carried out in sterile settings, this is the first research into how viruses behave in the environment, Quilliam said. However, he used standard laboratory methods to determine whether viruses found on microplastics in water were infectious.
"We weren't sure how well viruses could survive by 'hitchhiking' on plastic in the environment, but they do survive and they do remain infectious," he said. The findings, part of a $2.27m project funded by the Natural Environment Research Council looking at how plastics transport bacteria and viruses, concluded that microplastics enabled pathogen transfer in the environment. The paper is published in the journal Environmental Pollution. "Being infectious in the environment for three days, that's long enough to get from the wastewater treatment works to the public beach," Quilliam said. Wastewater treatment plants were unable to capture microplastics, he said. "Even if a wastewater treatment plant is doing everything it can to clean sewage waste, the water discharged still has microplastics in it, which are then transported down the river, into the estuary and wind up on the beach."
"We weren't sure how well viruses could survive by 'hitchhiking' on plastic in the environment, but they do survive and they do remain infectious," he said. The findings, part of a $2.27m project funded by the Natural Environment Research Council looking at how plastics transport bacteria and viruses, concluded that microplastics enabled pathogen transfer in the environment. The paper is published in the journal Environmental Pollution. "Being infectious in the environment for three days, that's long enough to get from the wastewater treatment works to the public beach," Quilliam said. Wastewater treatment plants were unable to capture microplastics, he said. "Even if a wastewater treatment plant is doing everything it can to clean sewage waste, the water discharged still has microplastics in it, which are then transported down the river, into the estuary and wind up on the beach."
Big Tobacco lawsuits? (Score:3)
Will there be lawsuit against plastic manufacturers? Starting with misleading claims of recyclability?
Re:Big Tobacco lawsuits? (Score:5, Insightful)
Not in the US, not in our lifetime. The courts are packed with conservative justices. Any ruling in a lower court that goes against a powerful lobby will be overturned in an appeal.
Re: (Score:1)
Roe v Wade inferred a Constitutional right to abortion into the 14th Amendment, the current case decided that the rationale was false. The validity or invalidity of these arguments is a much different argument than the one the general public is having and the media is reporting on. Pro-choice advocates
Re: (Score:3)
Courts are not packed with conservatives in the first place,
you're a liar [time.com]
and in the second this idea that the judiciary is hopelessly politicized is just sour fucking grapes
For everyone who's not a religious fundamentalist, yeah. 2/3 of the supremes are Catholics currently voting their religion hard, they've just handed down several hard core right-wing fundamentalist christian judgements in rapid fire. 22 percent of Americans are catholic. Less than 1 in 4 Americans are now making decisions for the rest of us.
You fuckers better hope this pans out for you, because if not, there may well be an anti-religious backlash the likes of which the planet has never seen b
Re: (Score:1)
As far as your hatred of Catholics, that is something you should see a professional over. But regardless they aren't legislating their religion. Finding against Roe isn't some sort of a ban on abortion, you hysterical nitwit, it simply means it isn't within the Federal government's authority to legislate. Which it isn't.
You can threaten me all you like. I know y
Re: (Score:2)
(foreigner's opinion here) I don't see how health issues are somehow not the juridiction of your Federal Government? Do people magically stop having medical problems when they cross state borders or something?
The answer is simple (Score:3)
only drink water with 4 day old micro-plastics in it.
Re: I don't get it (Score:2)
Re: I don't get it (Score:2)
Dang (Score:2)
The anti-plastics lobby is just on a roll, lol. "Plastics will also give you diarrhea!"
Will they make my chickens stop laying too? Cause warts?
Do I have to burn them at the st ... oh wait.
Re: (Score:2)
It's also causing dental cavities. [sciencenew...udents.org]
At some point, you know, when a lot of evidence is gathering, saying "no there is absolutely no problem whatsoever" becomes kind of irresponsible? Like the people who deny global warming is a problem, or that tobacco is a problem, or that asbestos is a problem?
Microplastic can't be filtered out? (Score:5, Interesting)
I worked at a big-city municipal sewage treatment plant for a summer during my college days and learned more than I wanted to know about the processes. So now I will tell you more than you probably want to know.
Wastewater initially passes through a screen that filters out the solid stuff - plastic dolls and other toys, condoms, anything that gets flushed but doesn't dissolve. At the plant where I worked the screens had to be manually cleaned periodically, a guy would shovel the detritus into bins that were hauled to the dump when full. You get a unique perspective on humanity from looking at this material.
Then the fluid goes into settling tanks which, in our case, were giant anaerobic bacterial stewpots. The bacteria would feed on the nutrients and suspended solids, and would sink to the bottom and be pumped out as a sludge. The sludge went into drying ponds and would later get blended in with compost for fertilizer. In our case that was pretty much it. After a few days of 'fermentation' and settling, the still-brown water was pumped into the adjacent bay. Yuk.
But my job was to monitor a pilot project that was designed to investigate the appropriate process for treating the wastewater properly, resulting in a clear fluid that you wouldn't want to drink but it won't contaminate the environment. It turns out that each municipality has its own characteristic sewage, often depending upon what local industries are present, and it can be necessary to experiment. Treatment typically consists of moving the waste through a series of aerobic bacteria tanks that are seeded with the appropriate biome. Ideally they will consume all the 'nutrients' and either settle to the bottom or be filtered out in one or more final stages. In our case this stage was a column of sand that had to be backflushed on a schedule.
I'm a little surprised that rotavirus would survive this process and remain viable. Also surprised that filtration can't get the microplastic, but maybe it is super-small. Also there are systems that pass the water through intense UV light which should kill most anything.
https://arviatechnology.com/bl... [arviatechnology.com]
Re: (Score:2)
They didn't put it through sewage treatment, just some basic filtration. See the reference in my other comment below. However, rotavirus can survive some types of sewage treatment -- not all sewage treatment plants are the same, and apparently rotavirus is viable for way more than 3 days when its free floating. So in other words, in my opinion the study is inconclusive as too whether microplastics might be a good thing or not.
Re: (Score:2)
For waste processing...heat is a solution. (Score:2)
Hitchhiking? (Score:2)
On plastic? Sorry, I don't take credit cards.
Gas, grass or ass. Nobody rides for free.
Re: (Score:2)
Wait, so microplastics are beneficial? (Score:3)
1. Those viruses actually survive in the water much longer than 3 days detached from microplastics. Reference: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.go... [nih.gov]
2. Do the microplastics sequester the viruses and then they die faster?
3. Published in a relatively low impact journal.