In this episode, UC environmental chemist 笔谤辞蹿听Sally Gaw聽explains the damage plastic is doing to our wildlife and environment, and where it鈥檚 ending up 鈥 from rainwater and sea salt to tuna and mackerel. Prof Gaw, who has spent her career studying environmental contaminants (including microplastics) also talks about all that antibacterial soap and hand sanitiser we鈥檙e using at the moment and why it鈥檚 not so great for our waterways.
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In this episode
01:18听My expertise and interest is in understanding where chemicals come from and where they might go and what kind of impacts they might have. I'm particularly interested in understanding聽how our everyday lives contribute to environmental contamination.
03:50聽I'm interested in a class of chemicals that's called聽emerging contaminants.
04:06聽I'm interested in the ones that we don't know very much about, and so we may not know the effects that they might have. One of the other contaminants that I'm working on in that space is聽microplastics.
10:07聽We are exposed to so much plastic in our everyday lives:聽most people use a plastic toothbrush, we drink out of plastic containers, people probably chew on their pens while they're thinking.
11:20 We're quite often using a very permanent material for very short-term uses.
13:30聽It's going to come down to some conversations as a community, of聽what is a good use of plastic, what is a frivolous use of plastic, and what is an appropriate use of this material.
14:25聽The available evidence is that聽in controlling disease at home, ordinary soap and water is as good as anti-microbial compounds. That's the evidence that is out there.
21:41聽I believe in evidence-based policy.聽When we get treated in the hospital, we expect the doctors are practicing evidence-based medicine-- that how they treat us and what they decide to do is based on strong evidence and strong science. I want to see the same for our policy: the decisions that we make about how we protect our environment and how we protect our people in New Zealand, I want to be based on strong science and so I want to contribute to that.
Meet our speakers
Sally Gaw
笔谤辞蹿听Sally Gaw聽is an environmental chemist, Associate Professor in Chemistry at UC's聽School of Physical and Chemical Sciences聽and Director of the聽Environmental Science聽programme. Prof Gaw decided at age 16 that she wanted to be an environmental chemist. Since then she鈥檚 worked in many areas of environmental health including in consulting firms, wastewater treatment plants, the public health service and now as a lecturer and researcher at UC.
Prof Gaw's research focuses on contaminants in the environment, including microplastics. Microplastics are so small that they're typically invisible to the naked eye. They鈥檙e entering the food chain through a range of species like tuna and mackerel and being found in rainwater, sea salt, air and even in us.
In 2019聽Prof Gaw contributed to聽聽on plastic and New Zealand鈥檚 reliance on it and was also part of a team of UC researchers who found microplastics inside聽聽鈥 a popular Kiwi seafood. Prof Gaw warns that unless we end our love affair with plastic, we could one day end up with more plastic in the sea than we have fish.
Learn more about Sally:聽Research profile
Molly Magid
Molly Magid聽is an MSc student at UC. A recent graduate of Brown University, Molly is working on research in conservation genomics with Associate Professor Tammy Steeves from the School of Biological Sciences. Molly is passionate about finding ways to communicate science to the public in a clear, novel, and engaging ways. Most recently, Molly worked as the lead student producer on the podcast聽,听which answers listener's questions about sustainability using relevant science research.
