Speleolog, Vol. 70 No. 1, 2022.
Stručni rad
Microplastics in the subterranean waters of the Republic of Croatia – Collaboration between students and speleologists
Mihaela Marceljak Ilić
Sažetak
This article presents an overview of cooperation between XV. Gymnasium and Clean Underground initiative and Speleology Department CMS »Željezničar« with a common aim to determine the amount of microplastics in underground waters, and through cooperation with and education of local communities decrease illegal deposits of waste into caves which represent the biggest source of plastics in our underground waters. Microplastics have been found in the human placenta, lungs, blood and stool, and may present a risk to human health. Croatian karst has a large storage of underground water, but unfortunately caves have become illegal garbage dumps with large amounts of plastics in them. This article presents a method which enables students to analyse the presence of microplastics particles in water, as well as preliminary results of underground water analysis from Ombla spring. Within 500 ml water sample from Ombla spring, 13 pieces with plastic origin have been found. Since there are no references to compare the results with, the results have been compared with student research done with the same method in protected and unprotected areas of west Istrian Adriatic. Since the Croatian Water Act does not define the amount of microplastics allowed in water, every further discussion is biased and inadequate. The future aim is to finish the analysis of the amount of microplastics in Croatian karst underground waters with hope that our results will help make change and give support in fight against illegal garbage dumps within Croatian karst.
Ključne riječi
Hrčak ID:
294909
URI
Datum izdavanja:
23.2.2023.
Posjeta: 1.597 *