Publications by authors named "Johanna Sonnenberg"
Weathering Plastics as a Planetary Boundary Threat: Exposure, Fate, and Hazards.
Hans Peter H Arp
,
Dana Kühnel
,
Christoph Rummel
,
Matthew MacLeod
,
Annegret Potthoff
,
Johanna Sonnenberg
Environ Sci Technol
June 2021
Article Synopsis
- Research from 2017 indicated that plastic litter in the ocean meets two of three criteria for threatening planetary boundaries related to chemical pollution and novel entities: it exposes ecosystems globally and is difficult to reverse.
- Recent findings suggest that weathered plastics, including macroplastics and microplastics, can have greater harmful effects compared to natural particles of similar size, raising concerns about their long-term impact.
- The study concludes that weathering plastics likely meet the third criterion of disrupting vital earth systems, which poses a significant planetary boundary threat, and calls for further research to understand their toxicological risks and to refine pollution thresholds.