marcusdemuth.com
10 Facts about Microplastics
(click on fact for source/paper)
1. Appr. 10% of all litter ends up in the ocean
2. Plastic litter is non-degradable, it stays with us forever, and thus accumulates
3. Lost fishing gear accounts for 20% of marine litter
4. First Study about Marine litter is from 1978
5. 94 % of plastic litter ends up on the seafloor, 5% in the water column, 1 % floats on the surface
6. Plastic litter on the seafloor increased 7-fold between 2004 and 2007, far exceeding a linear increase
7. The Nowegian Institute of Science and Technologie employs 16 full time employees in 6 boats, to collect garbage
8. The gastrointestinal tract serves as the primary entry point for daily exposure to micro- and nanoplastics
9. Micro- and nanoplastics fragment into tiny pieces, and eventually merge with the soil and sand on beaches or the seafloor, making it impossible to separate and collect
10, Microplastics have been found inside human cells, and transfer between cells during cell division
Norway 2025
“The revelation that the human body is full of microplastics is the most dominant health and environmental stories of our time.”
Rick Smith, President Canadian Climate Institute
A growing body of the 958 revieved papers of a scientific literature review about marine litter points to the imminent, life-threatening and irreversable impact of plastic marine litter on the health of both humans and marine life.
The aim of the 2025 Norwegian Sea Kayak expedition is to paddle the entire Norwegian coast, from Sweden to Russia, an appr. 2200 Miles journey, to assist in beach clean-up operations, and to collect data about 3 scientic questions of my physical oceanography research project about plastic debris in the marine environment.
Objectives:
1. To specifiy environmental and time parameters of the degradation from macro- to microplastic
2. To specifiy the origin and path of the encountered plastic debris
3. To learn about potential future remedies and measures already undertaken in conversations with local stakeholders and fellow oceanographers.
Background:
Most of us regard the sight of the large floating garbage gyres in the North Pacific or the daily encounter of plastic on our beaches unsightly, a nuisance and a visual reminder of our wasteful behaviour and thinking. Both microplastics and the to the naked eye invisible nanoplastics are probably the least known area of marine litter - but potentially also the most hazardous.
The existence of macro- (>1 mm), micro- (>1mm) and nanoplastics (>0.001 mm) are intertwined: The unsightly plastic bottle on the exposed pebble beach in the Lofoten will soon be grinded down by wind and wave energy to macro- and then microplastic. The third evolutionary step of this plastic bottle, which the human eye interprets wrongly as the disappearance of the plastic bottle, is its transformation by the means of fragmentation into nanoplastic particles.
From here, the nano- and microplastics find its way into the human body, predominatly through the food chain, e.g. by the way of eating seafood, and also through the lungs.
Micro- and nanoplastics have now been found in human brains, human placentas, and are embedded in the fatty plaque that clings to the walls of our blood vessels, heightening the risk of a premature death by heart attack or stroke by factor 4,5 due to the inflammatory traits of microplastics.
Marcus Demuth