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<DIV><FONT face=Arial color=#0000ff size=2><SPAN class=264410520-11022008>sorry
for any X-post but, thought i'd beat Deb "Dee" to this one. wonder if this
report is substantiated by any other scientific
studies/reports?</SPAN></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial color=#0000ff size=2><SPAN
class=264410520-11022008></SPAN></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial color=#0000ff size=2><SPAN class=264410520-11022008>allen
gilliam</SPAN></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial color=#0000ff size=2><SPAN class=264410520-11022008>adeq
state pretreatment coordinator </SPAN></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial color=#0000ff size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV></DIV>
<DIV class=OutlookMessageHeader lang=en-us dir=ltr align=left><FONT face=Tahoma
size=2>-----Original Message-----<BR><B>From:</B> Janet Brown
[mailto:Janet.brown@h2e-online.org] <BR><B>Sent:</B> Friday, February 08, 2008
10:27 AM<BR><B>To:</B> H2E - Hospitals for a Healthy Environment - Info Exchange
Listserv<BR><B>Subject:</B> [h2e] Floating "land"fill? article - fyi
PLASTICS!<BR><BR></FONT></DIV>H2E - Info Exchange Listserve<BR><BR><BR>
<DIV class=Section1>
<H2 style="LINE-HEIGHT: 14.4pt">The World's Dump: Ocean Garbage from Hawaii to
Japan<o:p></o:p></H2>
<H5 style="LINE-HEIGHT: 14.4pt">By Kathy Marks and Daniel Howden, The
Independent UK<BR>Posted on February 6, 2008, Printed on February 6, 2008<BR><A
href="http://www.alternet.org/story/76056/" target=_blank><SPAN
class=yshortcuts><SPAN
style="COLOR: #003399; TEXT-DECORATION: none">http://www.alternet .org/story/
76056/</SPAN></SPAN></A><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt"><o:p></o:p></SPAN></H5>
<P style="LINE-HEIGHT: 14.4pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; COLOR: black; FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'">A
"plastic soup" of waste floating in the Pacific Ocean is growing at an alarming
rate and now covers an area twice the size of the continental United States,
scientists have said.<o:p></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P style="LINE-HEIGHT: 14.4pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; COLOR: black; FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'">The
vast expanse of debris -- in effect the world's largest rubbish dump -- is held
in place by swirling underwater currents. This drifting "soup" stretches from
about 500 nautical miles off the Californian coast, across the northern Pacific,
past <SPAN class=yshortcuts>Hawaii</SPAN> and almost as far as <SPAN
class=yshortcuts>Japan</SPAN>.<o:p></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P style="LINE-HEIGHT: 14.4pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; COLOR: black; FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'">Charles
Moore, an American oceanographer who discovered the "Great Pacific Garbage
Patch" or "trash vortex", believes that about 100 million tons of flotsam are
circulating in the region. Marcus Eriksen, a research director of the US-based
Algalita Marine Research Foundation, which Mr Moore founded, said yesterday:
"The original idea that people had was that it was an island of plastic garbage
that you could almost walk on. It is not quite like that. It is almost like a
plastic soup. It is endless for an area that is maybe twice the size as
continental United States."<o:p></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P style="LINE-HEIGHT: 14.4pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; COLOR: black; FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'">Curtis
Ebbesmeyer, an oceanographer and leading authority on flotsam, has tracked the
build-up of plastics in the seas for more than 15 years and compares the trash
vortex to a living entity: "It moves around like a big animal without a leash."
When that animal comes close to land, as it does at the Hawaiian archipelago,
the results are dramatic. "The garbage patch barfs, and you get a beach covered
with this confetti of plastic," he added.<o:p></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P style="LINE-HEIGHT: 14.4pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; COLOR: black; FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'">The
"soup" is actually two linked areas, either side of the islands of Hawaii, known
as the Western and Eastern Pacific Garbage Patches. About one-fifth of the junk
-- which includes everything from footballs and kayaks to Lego blocks and
carrier bags -- is thrown off ships or oil platforms. The rest comes from
land.<o:p></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P style="LINE-HEIGHT: 14.4pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; COLOR: black; FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'">Mr
Moore, a former sailor, came across the sea of waste by chance in 1997, while
taking a short cut home from a <SPAN class=yshortcuts>Los Angeles</SPAN> to
Hawaii yacht race. He had steered his craft into the "North Pacific gyre" -- a
vortex where the ocean circulates slowly because of little wind and extreme high
pressure systems. Usually sailors avoid it.<o:p></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P style="LINE-HEIGHT: 14.4pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; COLOR: black; FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'">He was
astonished to find himself surrounded by rubbish, day after day, thousands of
miles from land. "Every time I came on deck, there was trash floating by," he
said in an interview. "How could we have fouled such a huge area? How could this
go on for a week?"<o:p></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P style="LINE-HEIGHT: 14.4pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; COLOR: black; FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'">Mr
Moore, the heir to a family fortune from the oil industry, subsequently sold his
business interests and became an environmental activist. He warned yesterday
that unless consumers cut back on their use of disposable plastics, the plastic
stew would double in size over the next decade.<o:p></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P style="LINE-HEIGHT: 14.4pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; COLOR: black; FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'">Professor
David Karl, an oceanographer at the <SPAN class=yshortcuts>University of
Hawaii</SPAN>, said more research was needed to establish the size and nature of
the plastic soup but that there was "no reason to doubt" Algalita's
findings.<o:p></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P style="LINE-HEIGHT: 14.4pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; COLOR: black; FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'">"After
all, the plastic trash is going somewhere and it is about time we get a full
accounting of the distribution of plastic in the marine ecosystem and especially
its fate and impact on marine ecosystems."<o:p></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P style="LINE-HEIGHT: 14.4pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; COLOR: black; FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'">Professor
Karl is co-ordinating an expedition with Algalita in search of the garbage patch
later this year and believes the expanse of junk actually represents a new
habitat. Historically, rubbish that ends up in oceanic gyres has biodegraded.
But modern plastics are so durable that objects half-a-century old have been
found in the north Pacific dump. "Every little piece of plastic manufactured in
the past 50 years that made it into the ocean is still out there somewhere,"
said Tony Andrady, a chemist with the US-based Research Triangle
Institute.<o:p></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P style="LINE-HEIGHT: 14.4pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; COLOR: black; FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'">Mr
Moore said that because the sea of rubbish is translucent and lies just below
the water's surface, it is not detectable in satellite photographs. "You only
see it from the bows of ships," he said.<o:p></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P style="LINE-HEIGHT: 14.4pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; COLOR: black; FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'">According
to the UN Environment Programme, plastic debris causes the deaths of more than a
million seabirds every year, as well as more than 100,000 marine mammals.
Syringes, cigarette lighters and toothbrushes have been found inside the
stomachs of dead seabirds, which mistake them for food.<o:p></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P style="LINE-HEIGHT: 14.4pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; COLOR: black; FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'">Plastic
is believed to constitute 90 per cent of all rubbish floating in the oceans. The
UN Environment Programme estimated in 2006 that every square mile of ocean
contains 46,000 pieces of floating plastic,<o:p></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P style="LINE-HEIGHT: 14.4pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; COLOR: black; FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'">Dr
Eriksen said the slowly rotating mass of rubbish-laden water poses a risk to
human health, too. Hundreds of millions of tiny plastic pellets, or nurdles --
the raw materials for the plastic industry -- are lost or spilled every year,
working their way into the sea. These pollutants act as chemical sponges
attracting man-made chemicals such as hydrocarbons and the pesticide DDT. They
then enter the food chain. "What goes into the ocean goes into these animals and
onto your dinner plate. It's that simple," said Dr Eriksen.
<o:p></o:p></SPAN></P>
<H5 style="LINE-HEIGHT: 14.4pt">© 2008 Independent Media Institute. All rights
reserved.<BR>View this story online at: <A
href="http://www.alternet.org/story/76056/" target=_blank><SPAN
class=yshortcuts><SPAN
style="COLOR: #003399; TEXT-DECORATION: none">http://www.alternet .org/story/
76056/</SPAN></SPAN></A><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Calibri','sans-serif'"><o:p></o:p></SPAN></H5>
<P class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 11pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Calibri','sans-serif'">Janet
Brown<o:p></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 11pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Calibri','sans-serif'">Partner Program
Manager<o:p></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 11pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Calibri','sans-serif'">Hospitals for a
Healthy Environment<o:p></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 11pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Calibri','sans-serif'">PO Box
3366<o:p></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 11pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Calibri','sans-serif'">Amherst, MA
01004<o:p></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 11pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Calibri','sans-serif'">413/253-0254<o:p></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 11pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Calibri','sans-serif'">www.h2e-online.org<o:p></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 11pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Calibri','sans-serif'"><o:p> </o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 11pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Calibri','sans-serif'">Janet is on the
steering committee of the Green Guide for Health Care. www.gghc.org.
<o:p></o:p></SPAN></P>
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