The sparkly stuff we love in makeup, cards, and festive decor might not be as harmless as it looks. A new study conducted by researchers at the University of São Paulo (USP) in Brazil revealed that Glitter can do some real harm to crucial ecosystems underwater, with tons of it ending up in the ocean– millions of metric tons, to be exact.
Glitter is everywhere, and it is notoriously difficult to wash off. But there’s a bigger issue: it’s made up of microplastics.
These tiny specks, usually crafted from materials like polyvinyl chloride (PVC) or polyethylene terephthalate (PET), get a coating of aluminum to give them that signature sparkle.
The problem? They’re so small that wastewater facilities can’t catch them, contributing to a staggering eight million metric tons of glitter estimated to have made its way into oceans recently.
Glitter’s inability to decompose naturally creates multiple hazards for Marine life, including consumption, exposure to harmful chemicals, and physical harm from its sharp corners. Because of its distinct size, form, and composition, it’s tough to accurately gauge the amount that’s polluting our waterways.
Researchers looked into how glitter impacts two kinds of cyanobacteria, also known as blue-green algae, which are crucial for underwater ecosystems.
These algae play a significant role in the cycles of water and soil, and they’re also a food source for other marine life.
Then, leveraging sophisticated techniques, the team evaluated how these algae grew when subjected to different levels of glitter exposure.
“We found that increasing the amount of glitter raised the biovolume of the cyanobacterial cells and boosted stress to levels that even impaired photosynthesis,” said Mauricio Junior Machado, the study’s first author.
Sign up for Chip Chick’s newsletter and get stories like this delivered to your inbox.
“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.
If true crime defines your free time, this is for you: join Chip Chick’s True Crime Tribe
He Decided To Donate His Deceased Daughter’s $120,000 College Fund To Charity Instead Of Helping His Estranged Son Pay For College
She’s Threatening To Leave Her Husband Because, Now That He’s Finally Successful As An Entrepreneur, He Wants To Open Up Their Marriage For Two Years To “Explore”
His Wife Bought A Brand New Mercedes Without Asking Him First So She Could Compete With Her Friend
His Wife Has A Super Rare Form Of Cancer And Wants To Leave Him So She Can Spend Her Final Days With Her Friends By Her Side
In 1976, This 9-Year-Old Girl Left Home To Go On A Bike Ride And Tragically Never Returned Home: Her Bike Was Later Discovered Abandoned, But No Sign Of Her Was Found
If You Love Urban Settings And Mixing Raw Materials, Then Industrial Style Home Decor May Be The Perfect Approach For You
She Was The First And Longest-Reigning Women’s World Chess Champion Who Was Inducted Into The World Chess Hall Of Fame In 2011
