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Hardly indestructible, plastics begin decomposing in ocean within a year, spreading harmful chemicals Jeremy Hance mongabay.com August 20, 2009
"Plastics in daily use are generally assumed to be quite stable," said study lead researcher Katsuhiko Saido, Ph.D. a chemist with the College of Pharmacy, Nihon University, Chiba, Japan. "We found that plastic in the ocean actually decomposes as it is exposed to the rain and sun and other environmental conditions, giving rise to yet another source of global contamination that will continue into the future."
Plastic pollution is ubiquitous throughout the oceans. Saido, who is from Japan, said that 150,000 tons of plastic debris washes up on Japanese shores alone every year. Floating islands of plastic commonly form in the open ocean. One of these islands, floating between California and Hawaii, is twice the size of Texas. The chemicals which are released into the water by decomposing plastics include bisphenol A (BPA) and PS oligomer. These chemicals have been shown to disrupt hormone functioning in animals and affect reproductive processes. Three other chemicals were found in the lab when the plastic was broken down: styrene monomer (SM), styrene dimmer (SD), and Styrene trimer (ST). SM is already a proven carcinogen, while both SD and ST may also cause cancer. The study raises questions as to whether plastics also break down in fresh water. The findings were announced this week at the 238th National Meeting of the American Chemical Society (ACS) in Washington, D.C. In Japanese Related articles Increasing pollution in US beaches (07/31/2009) A recent water quality assessment by the Natural Resources Defense Council cites that the levels of ocean pollution required more than 20,000 mandatory closing and advisory days at beaches across the United States this year. Pollution and contamination levels have not been diminishing, and this was the fourth consecutive year for beach closures to reach record numbers. UN calls for global ban on plastic bags to save oceans (06/09/2009) The UN’s top environmental official called for a global ban on plastic bags yesterday. "Single use plastic bags which choke marine life, should be banned or phased out rapidly everywhere. There is simply zero justification for manufacturing them anymore, anywhere," said Achim Steiner, executive director of the U.N. Environment Program. Polluted, degraded ecosystems can recover in less than a lifetime 
(05/31/2009) Restoration efforts can return polluted or degraded landscapes to previous states in less than a lifetime, according to study Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies. The study rebuts a common assumption that ecosystem recovery takes centuries, even millennia.
Plastic garbage accounts for one-third of leatherback sea turtle mortalities (03/17/2009) A new study in Marine Pollution Bulletin has confirmed that the world's largest sea turtle is succumbing in startling numbers to an environmental issue that receives little attention: plastic trash in the oceans.
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