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Dolphins Are Exhaling Microplastics
New research highlights how extensive plastic pollution is—and how nonhuman species, including dolphins, are exposed.
In humans, inhaled microplastics can cause lung inflammation, which can lead to problems including tissue damage, excess mucus, pneumonia, bronchitis, scarring, and possibly cancer. Our research found microplastics in the breath of dolphins living in both urban and rural estuaries, but we don’t know whether there are major differences in amounts or types of plastic particles between the two habitats. During these brief permitted health assessments, we held a petri dish or a customized spirometer —a device that measures lung function—above the dolphin’s blowhole to collect samples of the animals’ exhaled breath.
Or read this on Wired
