Although they have little responsibility for the current state of the world environment, young people have been taking the initiative to address problems from increasing global temperatures to plastic pollution.
Sheyna Patel, a 14 -year -old girl from Orlando, Florida, is an excellent example of how young people have been working hard to find solutions for serious problems they did not cause. Sheyna developed a new innovative hydrogel that eliminates water microplastics, an invention for which she has been recognized as a finalist in the 3M scientific challenge, according to West Orlando News.
“I entered the 3M Young Scientist challenge due to my passion for Stem research and environmental preservation,” Sheyna told 3M Young Scientists Lab. “This competition offers me the opportunity to show my findings and represent the innovative ideas I have to address real world problems.”
Sheyna’s hydrogel is not toxic and functions as a sponge, sucks plastic and effectively eliminates 93% of water PET microplastics, according to Australia today.
Microplastics and plastic pollution pose more widely a significant threat to human health, food and drinking water supplies, and the environment. Unlike organic materials, plastics do not biodegrade. On the other hand, they break into smaller and smaller pieces, becoming smaller microplastics and even nanoplastic.
The microplastics have contaminated every corner of the world, having been detected in the water we drink, the air we breathe and the food we eat.
The world produces around 495 million tons of plastic each year, a surprising increase of the approximately 2.2 million tons produced in 1950, according to our world in data. The plastic produced today, between 1.1 and 2.2 million tons end in the oceans annually.
While experts say it remains to do a lot of research to better understand the impacts that microplastics have on human health, there is already substantial evidence that microplastics and nanoplastic can have serious health consequences.
“There are so many unknowns,” said Bernardo Lemos of Harvard Thard Public Health School, according to Harvard Medicine publication. “But we are seeing more data that suggest that microplastics affect human biology.”
Studies have found that microplastics can cause DNA damage and changes in gene activity, which are known risks for cancer development, according to Harvard Medicine.
Despite the massive scale of the problem of plastic pollution and the severe threats it represents for human health, young people like Sheyna offer the hope that the next generation will find innovative solutions that help address the environmental challenges they have inherited.
When the 3M Young Scientists Lab asked where he hopes to be in 15 years, Sheyna replied that he hopes to be “in a leadership role within a field that I love, boosting innovation, advising others and contributing to significant advances that benefit not only my organization, but to society as a whole in Stem.”
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(Tagstotranslate) Plastic pollution
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