Posted on 12/13/2021 11:00:48 AM PST by conservative98
A study out of the University of Portsmouth in the UK has found that instances of littering with face masks and other PPE surged by 9000 percent during the first seven months of the coronavirus pandemic, and may have even helped the virus to spread more rapidly.
BBC News reports that the study, published in the journal Nature Sustainability, concluded around two million masks were collected as litter from 11 countries. This was just a snapshot of the situation in the wider world.
The study found that Covid-related litter began its “exponential increase” in March 2020, as the global pandemic was announced, and in conjunction with governments worldwide introducing restrictions including mandatory face mask-wearing.
“Overall the study shows the impact that legislating the use of items such as masks can have on their occurrence as litter,” Dr. Keiron Roberts, lead researcher with the University of Portsmouth, said, adding “We found that littered masks had an exponential increase from March 2020, resulting in an 84-fold increase by October 2020.”
“We need to avoid this pandemic litter becoming a lasting legacy,” Roberts added.
The study was conducted in Australia, Belgium, Canada, France, Germany, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Spain, Sweden, the UK, and the US using the litter collecting app Litterati.
The research further noted that the UK has the “highest overall proportion of masks, gloves and wipes as litter.”
In three three months of August, September and October 2020, masks made up more than 5% of all litter in the country, with wipes and gloves accounting for a further 1.5%, according to the study.
The findings confirm anecdotal accounts of the masks littering the streets in cities and the countryside.
The researchers have urged that if government are to continue mask mandates, they “must be accompanied with education campaigns to limit their release into the environment,” because the masks can act as a ‘vector’ to spread coronavirus.
Professor Steve Fletcher, from the University of Portsmouth noted that “Without better disposal practices, an environmental disaster is looming.”
“The majority of masks are manufactured from long-lasting plastic materials, and if discarded can persist in the environment for hundreds of years. This means they can have a number of impacts on the environment and people,” Fletcher urged.
A previous report by environmental group OceansAsia found that 1.5 billion face masks are expected to be dumped into the sea in just one year.
According to the group, the masks will contribute an estimated 7,000 tons of plastic to the oceans which are thought to already contain 5.25 trillion macro and micro pieces of plastic, and 46,000 larger pieces in every square mile of water.
The masks will also eventually become micro plastics and have the potential to enter the food chain.
Divers in the Philippines have discovered single use face masks and other PPE covering precious coral reefs and being consumed by marine life as the impact of lockdown takes its toll on the environment.
Environmental scientists have warned that such plastic pollution is shrinking penises and making men infertile, meaning most of them won’t be able to produce sperm by 2045.
I guess those that said masks don’t help are correct?
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My husband counts the ones he sees on the ground every day as he walks from his car to his office building. More all the time.
A lot of people are slobs.
Search only works if you post the same article. Somebody tried to cover some of this subject, but didn’t go into detail. Hence why this was posted.
Or maybe, just maybe, as people touch their (biohazard if you’re sick) mask 10x a day, contaminating everything they then touch, they’re 10x worse than ‘try not to touch your face’.
When you consider the behavior of people wearing masks, if they’re sick, knowingly or not, wearing them probably makes things worse, not better. It’s a big lie with no statistical proof they work. We were told we could ‘crush’ this virus if everyone just wore masks. Coincidently, it was around the same time BLM/Antifa wanted to riot, conveniently hiding their faces.
As there is no study or proof that they’ve helped in anyway, if anything things have become never ending now, I have decided to never wear one. They’re just as sign of virtue signaling. Every time I see one I see a lefty by default.
The one option never tried, for obvious reasons, is to reach herd immunity naturally - maybe that is the best of bad options.
The proportion of masks in litter increased by >80-fold as a result of COVID-19 legislation, from <0.01% to >0.8%...The largest increase in the reported proportions was for masks, with a median increasing from zero to >0.72%
The United Kingdom showed the highest overall proportion of masks, gloves and wipes as litter. For August–October 2020, masks accounted for >5% of all litter, with gloves and wipes present at ~1.5% respectively. Other countries showed different patterns of COVID-19-related litter proportions, with several showing little change before and after the pandemic announcements. In the Netherlands, for example, the proportion of masks, gloves and wipes does not exceed 1% of the total tagged litter, except for gloves, which reached 3% in April 2020. Sweden had many months when no COVID-19-related litter was recorded.
I remember when discussion about why we don’t have proper training and dispose facilities for masks instead they just throwing with regular garbage, reused, etc. And how that is dangerous/bad it was just a conspiracy theory
I still have my original.
“Search only works if you post the same article”
WRONG
Look at the other post that somebody is trying to stop me from posting this article for and tell me how I am wrong.
Damn read the last paragraph. That could be the elites real plan to exterminate most of the human race.
What other post?
Well, a discarded mask in the gutter or on the sidewalk does do one thing: It provides precisely the same level of protection against the Fauci Flu (or against any other respiratory virus for that matter) as does a mask worn on the face.
See. You don’t even know what you’re talking about then. Somebody is trying to censor this post for a garbage one sentence post that doesn’t even cover the 5 things being covered here. Search doesn’t apply here. If you’re into censorship go to Twitter.
“See. You don’t even know what you’re talking about then. Somebody is trying to censor this post for a garbage one sentence post that doesn’t even cover the 5 things being covered here. Search doesn’t apply here. If you’re into censorship go to Twitter.”
See what?
Every day I do the same! Wish I had a dime for every mask tossed on the street!
” Somebody is trying to censor this post “
Who, where, when? You post is up.
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