Reacción a "High concentrations of nanoplastics found in Atlantic Ocean"

I find the article very interesting, of good quality and novel.

The article presents, for the first time, data on the concentrations of nanoplastics -plastic particles of less than one micron- in the North Atlantic. Until now, knowledge about the presence of these pollutants in the ocean has been very limited, mainly due to methodological difficulties in detecting them. The results of the study suggest that the amount of nanoplastics could exceed that of micro- and macroplastics in marine ecosystems.

These findings force us to rethink key questions: how do nanoplastics affect marine organisms? Although much research remains to be done, preliminary studies already warn that nanoplastics pose a greater risk than other forms of plastic because of their ability to cross biological barriers and cause damage at the cellular level.

Another pressing question is: how much more evidence do we need to push for a binding global treaty to address plastic pollution? It has been more than two decades since the term “microplastics” was first used in the scientific literature. Since then, thousands of studies have accumulated documenting not only their alarming abundance in the oceans, but also their negative impacts on the health of marine organisms and humans.

The science is clear: urgent and ambitious measures are required to curb the production and discharge of plastics into the environment.

The limitations of studying nanoplastics are always methodological, as it is very difficult to avoid contamination. For example, particles of polyethylene and polypropylene, two of the most frequent polymers in studies of macro and microplastics, were not detected. This may be due, as the authors suggest, to methodological difficulties in which the modified polymers are not detected or are masked by organic particles.