Liver Damage from Plastic Pollution on Australians

Running Head: LIVER DAMAGE FROM PLASTIC POLLUTION ON AUSTRALIANS
ENVIRONMENTAL HEALTH RISK ASSESSMENT (EHRA) – LIVER DAMAGE
FROM PLASTIC POPULATION AND ITS INCIDENCE ON AUSTRALIAN

LIVER DAMAGE FROM PLASTIC POLLUTION ON AUSTRALIAN
Introduction
It has been seen that each square kilometer of the Australian sea surface water is seen to
be contaminated with 4,000 tiny plastic pieces, as revealed in a study published by a journal
PLOS One (Higginbotham, Freeman, Connor & Albrecht, 2010). Plastics are materials that are
converted from different types of petrochemicals. The years between 1950 and 2011 have
witnessed significant growth in terms of production of plastic worldwide from about 1,700,000
tons to 2,80,000,000 tons. These plastics directly enter the food ecosystem when ingested by
plankton and small fishes. Australians have a tendency to intake large amounts of fishes in
dietary intake as a form of protein. Thus, when the tiny plastic is ingested through the food
ecosystem by humans, it causes tremendous negative impacts on the liver (Pritchard et al, 2010).
The current scope study evaluates the environmental risk assessment from plastic pollution in
water bodies and oceans in Australia, contributing to the health outcome of liver damage in adult
and children population.
Research Question
The current scope of the study will aim to identify the PICO elements through the
research questions.
o P- What segment of the population will be the most affected from plastic in water
bodies and ocean?
o I – What are the prognostic factor exposure in water pollution being considered?
o C – What are the alternatives to compare the above interventions method?
o O – What is the measure which can be improvised through the intervention
mechanism?
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LIVER DAMAGE FROM PLASTIC POLLUTION ON AUSTRALIAN
Background Information
Literatur-e Review
Owing to a higher amount of plastics being disposed of, along with the fact that only a
few amounts of the total used plastics are recycled, have led to the growth of plastic waste
worldwide (Bartram, 2009). In Australia, for example, only 20% out of 1,433,046 tons of used
plastic from 2010 to 2011 has been recycled. Besides, only 37% of the plastic was manufactured
for single-use disposable packaging. The plastics arising from the populated areas reach the sea
via wind, rainwater, sewage disposal, rivers, and flood or due to offshore installations and
vessels such as fishing gear. Then they can either stay afloat on the surface of the sea or ocean or
if they are made of polymer, that is denser than water, they can sink to the bottom of the water
body (McMichael & Lindgren, 2011). The floatable plastics either can be cast ashore by winds
or they can enter into the open area of ocean, where these plastics are likely to get accumulated
in areas formed by the ocean gyres.
The plastics found in various water bodies are further broken into smaller pieces owing to
various biological, photochemical and mechanical processes. Different forms of plastics
manufactured in smaller sizes, i.e. less than 5 mm, also called micro-plastics, including the
synthetic fibers found in clothes and the microbeads from cosmetics may also reach the oceans.
It has been noticed that these smaller particles of plastic, which are less than 5 mm, forms a
significant portion of man-made debris found in the oceans (Schwarzenbach et al, 2010).
However, owing to lack of data regarding the characteristics and occurrence at sea, their
dynamics were poorly evaluated. The only source of information in the published form regarding
micro-plastics is available in the form of a global study that contains a record of their occurrence
in the deposits of Port Douglas in Queensland and Busselton Beach in Western Australia.
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LIVER DAMAGE FROM PLASTIC POLLUTION ON AUSTRALIAN
Besides, the current information regarding the pollution caused by plastic is limited to three
sources. The first source is the litter cleanups at beaches that contain the record of the occurrence
of comparatively larger objects (Wooldridge, 2009). The second source is the land-based surveys
regarding the effects of marine debris on the megafauna found in marine areas and the third
source is the reports from Australia, regarding pollution caused by plastic.
Owing to the net stations located within different regions experiencing different
hydrodynamics the course taken by drifters and the result obtained from the use of the model,
showed that there may be a wide range of possible routes through which the plastics, have
traveled. A range of currents can carry the plastics to the sampled sites. Next is South Equatorial
current present in the Pacific Ocean that can bring plastic from other nations to the east coast of
Australia that includes the net stations 16 to 24, 36, 37 and 40 to 45, and areas near New
Caledonia and Fiji that includes net stations 25 to 35. These currents are Antarctic Circumpolar
current that can carry plastics arising from a varied area to various net stations especially the
ones located along the coast of south of Australia, the Tasman Sea and the Tasman coast such as
the net stations - 1 to 15, 38 and 39 (Wright, Wright, Graham & Burgin, 2011). East Australian is
another current that can carry plastic from regions that are highly populated by residential
property such as Brisbane and Sydney, to the net stations situated along the Tasmania coast such
as net stations 5, 15, 38 and 39, Tasman sea that includes net stations 1 to 4 and the east coast of
Australia that includes net stations 16 to 24, 36 and 37 (Lavers, Bond & Hutton, 2014). Then
there are Holloway, Leeuwin, South Australian and Zeehan coastal current systems that can
carry plastic from areas connected from the Indonesian Throughflow and Indian Gyre into the
net stations of the North West Shelf, that is the net stations 48 to 57, Perth that is, the net station
14 and south coast of Australia, Bass Strait, Tasman Sea and Tasmania coast that covers net
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