Microplastics in the environment: Much ado about nothing? A debate
- Published
- Accepted
- Subject Areas
- Ecosystem Science, Science Policy, Ecotoxicology, Environmental Contamination and Remediation, Environmental Impacts
- Keywords
- Plastic pollution, Microplastics, microplastic, synthetic polymers
- Copyright
- © 2018 Backhaus et al.
- Licence
- This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, reproduction and adaptation in any medium and for any purpose provided that it is properly attributed. For attribution, the original author(s), title, publication source (PeerJ Preprints) and either DOI or URL of the article must be cited.
- Cite this article
- 2018. Microplastics in the environment: Much ado about nothing? A debate. PeerJ Preprints 6:e26507v4 https://doi.org/10.7287/peerj.preprints.26507v4
Abstract
This manuscript documents a debate between the two authors on the issue of microplastics in the environment. It was sparked by a recent viewpoint article published by G. A. Burton in Environmental Science and Technology (http://doi.org/10.1021/acs.est.7b05463) and started as a Twitter debate. To expand, we decided to continue our conversation publishing 1000-word texts on peerJ and responding to each other in roughly two-week intervals. Currently, the text contains the following:
1) An introduction, which sets the scene for the article
2) Martin's kick-off statement “Soul-searching on microplastics: Lost in translation, prioritization and communication?”, dated Feb. 27, 2018
3) Thomas' opening statement “A genuine research topic, but let’s avoid hyperboles”, dated March 18, 2018
4) Martin’s rebuttal “Moving forward: What are the risks of microplastics?”, dated April 18, 2018
Author Comment
The new version contains the rebuttal of Martin, dated April 18, 2018.