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Past and current research of microplastics at the Illinois Sustainable Technology Center
Summary
This conference abstract summarizes microplastic research conducted at the Illinois Sustainable Technology Center, covering detection methods, environmental fate, and biological effects. The work highlights that while microplastics are found nearly everywhere, the ecological impacts at realistic environmental concentrations remain unclear.
Presented by: John Scott – Senior Chemist at University of Illinois, zhewang@illinois.edu Co-authors: Lee Green, Joe Parkos, Dave Soucek Abstract: Given its large production volume and wide-spread use, plastic pollution and microplastics are found nearly everywhere one looks for them. Although it is still not known if negative impacts occur from microplastic pollution in the environment, what is known is that these materials are extremely persistent. This presentation will cover methods developed at the Illinois Sustainable Technology Center to measure microplastics in environmental samples and several studies on how these materials interact with the environment surrounding them. In addition, current efforts to understand the major source of microplastic pollution and the fate and transport of these materials will be discussed. Biography: John Scott is a Senior Chemist at the Illinois Sustainable Technology Center at the University of Illinois. He has a B.S. degree in Chemistry and a B.S degree in Environmental Health & Safety from the Illinois State University. John’s research interests include emerging contaminants (such as microplastics and PFAS), waste utilization, and natural products. John has been investigating microplastics for last 6 years and is a member of the International Freshwater Microplastics Network.