Panic as millions of 'toxic balls' wash up on Aussie beach
au.news.yahoo.com
Environmentalist Alison Foley said the 'horrible stuff' is incredibly harmful and asks the community for help. Find out what happened.

A major clean-up is underway along Australia’s east coast after “millions” of polystyrene balls washed up onto the sand.

  • Technus@lemmy.zipEnglish
    321·
    8 months ago

    Polystyrene itself isn’t toxic but it degrades on exposure to UV light (the stomach acid and digestive enzymes of the animal probably does a number on it too), and when it breaks into microscopic particles it’s known to be toxic: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7193629/

    There’s also likely still traces of solvents, plasticizers or other additives that aren’t meant to be ingested, especially if the polystyrene wasn’t manufactured with food safety in mind.