Katharina Buczek
“The toxicity of glitter for microorganisms has hardly been studied at all. Whatever affects cyanobacteria will indirectly affect other organisms in the same environment.”
Being exposed to specific amounts of glitter had a serious impact on the algae’s growth rates, and the detrimental effects were most noticeable on day 21 of the study.
“Glitter is sold for use in festivities, where people spare little thought for the environmental problems it causes,” concluded Marli de Fátima Fiore.
“However, it’s necessary to bear in mind that microplastics contaminate and damage marine and freshwater ecosystems, which are extremely important to our lives, and to think about campaigns to avoid microplastic pollution as much as possible.
Now, the team intends to take their research further by evaluating the effects of glitter on other kinds of cyanobacteria and assessing whether or not “biodegradable glitter” actually poses less harm to marine life.
To read the study’s complete findings, which have since been published in Aquatic Toxicology, visit the link here.
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