Europe's great rivers hit by 'alarming' microplastic pollution
"The pollution is present in all European rivers" studied, said French scientist Jean-François Ghiglione, who coordinated the large-scale operation across nine major rivers from the Thames to the Tiber.
"Alarming" pollution of on average "three microplastics per cubic metre of water" was observed in all of them, according to the results published in the journal of Environmental Science and Pollution Research.
This is far from the 40 microplastics per cubic metre recorded in the world's 10 most polluted rivers -- the Yellow River, Yangtze, Mekong, Ganges, Nile, Niger, Indus, Amur, Pearl and Hai -- which irrigate countries where most plastic is produced or plastic waste is processed.
But this does not take into account the volume of water flowing.
'3,000 particles a second'
On the Rhone in Valence, France, the fast flow means there are "3,000 plastic particles every second", said Ghiglione. The Seine in Paris has around 900 per second.
"The mass of microplastics invisible to the naked eye is more significant than that of the visible ones," said Ghiglione -- a result that "surprised" researchers. This was confirmed by analytical advances made during the studies, which began in 2019.
"Large microplastics float and are collected at the surface, while invisible ones are distributed throughout the water column and are ingested by many animals and organisms," said Ghiglione, head of research in marine microbial ecotoxicology at the French National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS).
Samples were collected from the mouths of the rivers Elbe, Ebro, Garonne, Loire, Rhone, Rhine, Seine, Thames and the Tiber by some 40 chemists, biologists and physicists from 19 research laboratories.
Zaragoza's cathedral next to the river Ebro in Zaragoza, in the Aragon region of Spain. Photo by PIERRE-PHILIPPE MARCOU / AFP.
The researchers then made their way upstream until they reached the first major city on each of the waterways.
"Microplastics are smaller than a grain of rice," said Alexandra Ter Halle, a chemist at the CNRS in Toulouse, who took part in the analysis.
'Mermaid tears'
The particles are less than five millimetres in size, with the smallest invisible to the naked eye.
These include synthetic textile fibres from washing clothes and microplastics released from car tyres or when unscrewing plastic bottle caps.
Researchers also found virgin plastic pellets, the raw granules used to manufacture plastic products.
One of the studies identified a virulent bacterium on a microplastic in the Loire in France, capable of causing infections in humans.
Another unexpected finding was that a quarter of microplastics discovered in rivers are not derived from waste but come from industrial plastic pellets.
These granules, dubbed "mermaid tears", can also sometimes be found scattered along beaches after maritime incidents.
"What we see is the pollution is diffuse and established" and "comes from everywhere" in the rivers, he added.
"The international scientific coalition we are part of (as part of international UN negotiations on reducing plastic pollution) is calling for a major reduction in the production of primary plastic because we know that plastic production is directly linked to pollution," he said.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Local Spain
7 days ago
- Local Spain
Climate change made European heatwave up to 4C hotter: study
The high temperatures probably led to more heat-related deaths than would have occurred without the influence of global warming, concluded a rapid study of the episode by over a dozen researchers from five European institutions. Temperatures between late June and early July soared well above 40C in many European countries as the first heatwave of the summer broke records and triggered health warnings. The EU's climate monitor Copernicus said on Wednesday that June 2025 was the hottest on record in western Europe, where some schools and tourist sites were shuttered as the mercury soared. To assess what role climate change played, scientists compared how intense a heatwave would have been in a world that had not warmed due to burning masses of fossil fuels. Using historical weather data, they concluded the heatwave 'would have been 2 to 4C cooler' without human-induced climate change in all but one of the 12 cities studied. The added degrees greatly elevated the risk in these cities, which have a combined population of more than 30 million and include major capitals Paris, London and Madrid. 'What that does is it brings certain groups of people into more dangerous territory,' said researcher Ben Clarke, from Imperial College London, which co-led the study with the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. 'For some people it's still warm, fine weather. But for now a huge sector of the population, it's more dangerous.' The study, for the first time, also sought to estimate the death toll from the heatwave in the 12 cities studied, and how many could be attributed to climate change. Based on peer-reviewed scientific methods and established research on heat and mortality, the study concluded the heatwave likely caused about 2,300 deaths between June 23rd and July 2nd across the 12 cities studied. An estimated 1,500, or roughly two thirds, of these deaths would not have occurred had climate change not pushed temperatures to such dangerous highs, researchers said. The authors, from research institutions in the UK, Netherlands, Denmark and Switzerland, stressed this estimate was just a snapshot of the wider heatwave, as no official count was yet available. Heatwaves are particularly dangerous for the elderly, the sick, young children, outdoor workers, and anyone exposed to high temperatures for prolonged periods without relief. The effect on health is compounded in cities, where heat is absorbed by paved surfaces and buildings, making urban areas hotter than their surroundings. Copernicus said large parts of southern Europe experienced so-called 'tropical nights' during the heatwave, when overnight temperatures don't fall low enough to let the body recover. 'An increase in heatwave temperature of just two or four degrees can mean the difference between life and death for thousands of people,' said Garyfallos Konstantinoudis, a lecturer at Imperial College London. 'This is why heatwaves are known as silent killers. Most heat-related deaths occur in homes and hospitals out of public view and are rarely reported,' he told reporters. Authorities say it could take weeks to tally a more definitive death toll from the recent heatwave, but similar episodes have claimed tens of thousands of lives in Europe during previous summers.
Local Spain
05-05-2025
- Local Spain
'Choose Europe': New push launched to lure disgruntled US scientists
European Union European leaders, scientists, academics and ministers met on Monday to launch new efforts to attract US researchers and scientists who may have lost their funding or jobs because of Donald Trump. French President Emmanuel Macron and European Commission head Ursula von der Leyen were set on Monday to host a conference in Paris aimed at attracting US researchers ready to relocate because of President Donald Trump's policies. European commissioners, scientists, academics and ministers for research from European Union member countries will discuss, among other things, financial incentives to lure disgruntled US scientists across the Atlantic. Paris's Sorbonne University is hosting the conference, called "Choose Europe for Science", which is to close with speeches by Macron and von der Leyen. Universities and research facilities in the United States have come under increasing political and financial pressure under Trump, including threats of massive federal funding cuts. US research programmes face closure, tens of thousands of federal workers have been fired and foreign students fear possible deportation for their political views. The 27-nation EU hopes to offer an alternative for researchers and, by the same token, "defend our strategic interests and promote a universalist vision", an official in Macron's office told AFP. The French president has already appealed to foreign, notably US, researchers to "choose France". Last month he unveiled plans for a funding programme to help universities and other research bodies cover the cost of bringing foreign scientists to the country. 'Flood of applicants' Aix Marseille University in the south of France announced in March it would open its doors to US scientists threatened by cuts. It says its "Safe Place for Science" scheme has already received a flood of applicants. Last week, France's flagship scientific research centre, the CNRS, launched a new initiative aimed at attracting foreign researchers whose work is threatened. It is also seeking to attract French researchers working abroad, some of whom "don't want to live and raise their children in Trump's United States", according to CNRS President Antoine Petit. An official in Macron's office said Monday's conference came "at a time when academic freedoms are retreating and under threat in a number of cases and Europe is a continent of attractiveness". One obstacle, experts say is the fact that while EU countries can offer competitive research infrastructure and a high quality of life, research funding and researchers' remuneration both lag far behind US levels. But CNRS's Petit said last week he hoped that the pay gap would seem less significant once the lower cost of education and health, and more generous social benefits were taken into account. Macron's office said France and the EU were targeting researchers in a number of specific sectors, including health, climate, biodiversity, artificial intelligence and space. The French government could finance up to 50 percent of selected research projects, an official in the presidential office said, while assistance could also be offered in the form of tax incentives. Non-EU members Norway, Britain and Switzerland are participating in Monday's conference, Macron's office said. More #European Union
Local Spain
29-04-2025
- Local Spain
Q&A: How can Spain's entire electricity grid go down in five seconds?
General power outages like the one that hit Spain and Portugal this week can have multiple causes but the blackout highlighted how vulnerable the regional system on the Iberian peninsula can be. Why has the cause not yet been identified? The electrical grid is a backbone with complex branches consisting of thousands of interconnected components. "The grid operators must carefully analyse massive amounts of real-time data like frequency shifts, line failures, generator statuses and protection system actions to trace the sequence of events without jumping to conclusions," Pratheeksha Ramdas, senior new energies analyst at Rystad Energy, told AFP. What are the usual causes? Outages are often caused by a sudden shutdown of a source of production like a power plant due to a technical fault or a fuel shortage supplying thermal power plants. In recent years, natural disasters such as storms, earthquakes, forest fires, extreme heat or cold sometimes intensified by global warming have damaged infrastructure or created peaks of demand for heating or air conditioning. Other possible causes include overloads on high-voltage power lines, which force excess electricity to move to other lines, and cyberattacks, which Spain and Portugal have ruled out, but which are an increasingly mentioned threat as networks become more digitised. Was there an imbalance between supply and demand? In Spain on Monday evening, grid operator REE mentioned a "strong fluctuation in power flows, accompanied by a very significant loss of production". In Europe, the electrical frequency on the network is calibrated to a standard of 50 hertz (Hz). A frequency below that level means not enough electricity is being produced to meet demand. In contrast, a frequency above 50 Hz means that less electricity needs to be made. Operators have to order power plants in real time to produce more or less electricity according to demand to keep a frequency of 50 Hz. "Maintaining that frequency is a matter of balance," said Michael Hogan, senior advisor at the Regulatory Assistance Project, an NGO. If the frequency moves away from 50Hz, automated protection systems kick in to cut off parts of the grid to prevent damage to equipment in a domino effect. "Once power stations begin to shut themselves down for protection the situation can quickly get out of control," Hogan told AFP. "But... it's very rare for that to reach the state it did in Iberia yesterday (Monday)." How Monday's problem all started is difficult to determine. "One of the factors that most likely contributed to the instability is the weak interconnection between the peninsula and the rest of the western European grid, which meant that there wasn't much inertia in that part of the network to dampen the oscillations on the Spanish side of the interconnection," said Hogan. But that is likely only a contributory factor and not the root cause. "It will probably be the failure of one or two major transmissions facilities, which then cascaded to other connected parts of the network," said Hogan. "But what would have caused that initial transmission failure remains to be learned." What effect did renewable energy have? In Spain, about 40 percent of electricity comes from solar or wind power. At midday on Monday it was even more at about 70 percent. Unlike gas-fired power stations which need several minutes to start, "solar and wind generation cannot be controlled on demand and must often be curtailed", Rystad Energy's Ramdas told AFP. The European Network of Transmission System Operators (ENTSOE) warned on April 18 about the risks of solar overproduction as good weather approaches. Ramdas said Monday's disruption was a "clear warning". "Without stronger domestic resilience and improved regional coordination, future grid failures could have even more consequences," she wrote in a client note. "Without sufficient flexibility measures like storage, fast-ramping plants or strong interconnectors, large swings in renewable output can destabilise the grid," she told AFP. Lion Hirth, an energy consultant and professor of energy policy at the Hertie School in Berlin, said it was "likely" that "a system with very little conventional generation online (nuclear, gas, coal, hydro) has less dampening inertia, (in other words) is more prone to such oscillations getting out of control. "So, despite the uncertainty, I think it is fair to say that it didn't help that the Iberian system was mostly running on wind and solar on Monday noon," he added.
