Djamadar Saindou, student in Master 2 Biodiversity Ecology and Evolution course Ecosystem in Montpellier during the 2019-2020 school year. I did an internship within the EPOC team in Bordeaux on plastics and the evolution of their toxicity during their aging in seawater.
This internship fits in the frame of a thesis by Charlotte Lefebvre which is part of a regional project on New Aquitaine called ARPLASTIC.
This project aims to assess the occurrence and levels of impregnation of the Arcachon Basin by microplastics, as well as the health and environmental impacts associated with this contamination.
So far, few or no one studies have seriously addressed the topic of how plastic toxicity has evolved over time. After starting my internship in the EPOC laboratory in Bordeaux, I was invited by Jérôme Cachot, director of the laboratory, to participate in the Ocean i3 2020 project. So I was able to integrate challenge 1 of the project: "Make water clean again (PROTECH shores) ”.
My work fits very well within the framework of this challenge which proposes to give more information on the aging aspect of plastic. For this, 5 types of polymers have been studied: polyester, prolypropylene (PP), polyethylene terephthalate (PET), low density polyethylene (LDPE) and high density polyethylene (HDPE). After 3 months of aging in Arcachon Basin, acute toxicity tests were carried out on bioluminescent bacteria. In addition, tests will be carried out on oysters, and plastics aged for 8 months will also be analyzed.
Unfortunately, the more time passes, the more plastic there is in the sea. The means put in place must imperatively find solutions as quickly as possible in order to better prepare for the risks to come.
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