Fredonia Environmental Sciences Professor Sherri "Sam" Mason, who has been a tireless advocate in the fight against products containing microbeads due to the devastating pollution effects they have on the Great Lakes ecosystem, was the subject of an editorial in the New York Times on Friday. The full article can be seen here.
Dr. Mason's research, which has led to legislative bans in Colorado, Connecticut, Illinois, Indiana, Maine, Maryland, New Jersey and Wisconsin, was the subject of a report by New York State Attorney General Eric Schneiderman earlier this year, resulting in a bill that was approved in the New York State Assembly, but has not yet passed the Senate.
Dr. Mason's research findings have been reported literally around the world over the last few years, from NPR and the Toronto Sun to BBC and Al Jazeera TV.
In collaboration with the 5 Gyres Institute, she and her students have conducted the first-ever survey for plastic pollution within the open waters of the Great Lakes. They found plastic particles within all 5 of the Great Lakes, with alarmingly increasing levels as they moved east, following the natural flow of the waters toward the Atlantic ocean. The counts obtained, especially those within Lakes Erie and Ontario, rival those within the world's ocean. The size of the particles found are often very tiny -- usually between 1/3 mm to one mm in diameter.
