Jeremy,
I think that the real problem of heavy metal and other toxins is not the larger
pieces of plastic directly ingested by the sea birds. It seems that the small
(say, less than 1-2mm) that are ingested by other species are the real
culprits. The smaller particles are ingested by smaller species and so the
contaminants steadily work their way up the food chain, a la Minamata Disease.
Cheers,
Carl Clifford
On 06/09/2012, at 9:08 PM, "Jeremy O'Wheel" <> wrote:
> It's interesting. I've been paying a lot of close attention to this issue,
> because Jenn Lavers is from my university, and one of the strongest critics
> of her research, Dr. Maureen Davey, is a close family friend. A lot of the
> results about heavy metals in birds haven't been able to be repeated, and Dr
> Davey, who has worked in Aboriginal Health for many years (and is a medical
> doctor, and senior lecturer in public health at UTas) was initially quite
> concerned because short-tailed shearwaters are eaten (muttonbird) and the
> contamination was high enough to cause toxicity in people eating it. However
> the research she's been involved with hasn't been able to find significant
> contamination, and I don't think there's been any demonstration of negative
> health effects in people eating the birds either (although I'd have to check
> that). There's also been a lot of criticisms of the methods used, but I
> didn't really follow those. I should add that this my impression from a
> number
of discussion with Dr Davey (we often go birding together), so it's entirely
possible I've misunderstood.
>
> There is no doubt that sea birds can be found with large amounts of plastic
> in them, but it is much more controversial and debated as to whether this
> leads to heavy metal contamination or not. I think it's an issue where more
> study might be needed, and making conclusions would be difficult. I will
> email Maureen with a link to the show though, and ask for a comment.
>
> Regards,
>
> Jeremy
>
>
> On Thu, Sep 6, 2012 at 8:36 PM, Carl Clifford <> wrote:
> Oops, I of course meant the ABC's Catalyst.
>
> Carl Clifford
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