Bethanie Carney Almroth’s research while affiliated with University of Gothenburg and other places

... It is vital to acknowledge the necessity of demonstrating fortitude in confronting the inescapable reality that the environment is becoming a primary cause of human illness [10][11][12][13]. Moreover, there is a pressing need to assume responsibility for the aspects of our environment that are within our capacity to modify, and to proactively initiate transformative changes [14]. This can only be achieved when researchers defy themselves and take their avant-garde thinking to societies. ...

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Thinking Beyond Food to Nutrition and Beyond Cells to Immunology

... The global per capita consumption of plastic is growing, and to date plastic mitigation and regulation measures have been unsuccessful in stemming plastic leakage into the marine environment. Plastics are thus recognised as one of the world's most intractable socio-environmental challenges [8]. Representatives from 175 countries will meet in Geneva, Switzerland (5)(6)(7)(8)(9)(10)(11)(12)(13)(14) August 2025) for the second part of the fifth session (INC-5.2) to negotiate a global treaty to end plastic pollution that comprehensively addresses the full life cycle of plastic, including its production, design, and disposal. ...

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Towards a ‘theory of change’ for ocean plastics: a socio-oceanography approach to the global challenge of plastic pollution

... More than 267 species were reported to be influenced by plastic waste, especially 86% of turtles, 44% of birds, 43% of mammals, and various fish species (United States Environmental Protection Agency, 2022). Recent publications also revealed that the presence of plastic waste could also change the climate by disrupting carbon sequestration processes and altering the reflectivity of ice and terrestrial surfaces, thereby exacerbating global warming and climate instability (Sunil et al., 2024;Villarrubia-Gómez et al., 2024). On the other hand, climate change (e.g., higher temperature, stronger UV radiation, etc.) can further increase the degradation of plastic waste, releasing uncountable microplastics (MPs; <5 mm) or nanoplastics (NPs; <1 μm) into the environment (Wei et al., 2024). ...

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Mind the gap: Sustainable management of the surging plastic waste in the post-COVID-19 pandemic

... They stressed that this approach denotes the risk of positioning the CE primarily as a tool to improve economic competitiveness rather than as a means to promote sustainable development. Canada, Australia, Indonesia, the United Kingdom and the African Group of States have emphasized that government strategies on plastics should align with existing multilateral environmental agreements, including the Basel, Stockholm, Rotterdam, and Minamata Conventions, as well as the Rio Declaration [46,47]. Addressing the plastics crisis requires coordinated national, regional, and global efforts involving industry, civil society, academia, and governments [48]. ...

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Analyzing Government Plans for the Plastic Value Chain in the Latin American Circular Economy

... The particles identified in this study were mainly blue and black fibers (32.1% and 18.7%, respectively), which are the predominant type of particles ingested by other marine chondrichthyans (Gong et al., 2024). Different polymers have different leaching properties (Lithner et al., 2011) and different capacities to accumulate toxic chemicals (Bond et al., 2018), and microfibers are the particles of most toxicological concern (Brander et al., 2024). While the impacts of microplastic ingestion are difficult to assess and generally not lethal (Bucci et al., 2020;Galloway et al., 2017), especially in largebodied megafauna (Roman et al., 2020), chronic exposure raises concerns for feeding, behavior, and reproductive issues (Galloway et al., 2017). ...

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No escape from microplastics: Contamination of reef manta ray feeding areas in a remote, protected archipelago

... While the opportunity to potentially reframe our societal relationship with plastic is the source of significant optimism, the negotiating process has not been without controversy -notably the actual or perceived marginalisation of indigenous communities and scientists in the process to date [40]. Furthermore, negotiations thus far have proven challenging due to the conflicting interests posed by the need to reduce the input and impacts of plastic waste versus the profits of petrochemical companies and the countries that produce these resources [8]. ...

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Towards a ‘theory of change’ for ocean plastics: a socio-oceanography approach to the global challenge of plastic pollution

... Similarly, another study by Banaei et al. [37] on common carp Cyprinus carpio demonstrated that microplastic exposure induced oxidative stress, leading to increased activities of antioxidant enzymes, including SOD, in various tissues. A study conducted in gilthead seabream Sparus aurata, the subchronic exposure to polystyrene microplastics for 21 days caused oxidative imbalance by altering the antioxidant defense system [38]. ...

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Influence of Polystyrene Microplastics on Mitochondrial Oxidative Damage in Renal and Muscular Tissues of the Freshwater Fish

... The results showed a similar trend to those observed in the water samples, with HDPE ponds exhibiting higher microplastic concentrations in shrimp tissues compared to concrete ponds. The most common types of microplastics found in shrimp tissues were fragments and fibers, which were predominantly polypropylene and polyethylene, consistent with previous studies on microplastic contamination in aquatic organisms (Kardgar et al. 2024;Contino et al. 2023). Table 3 shows the concentrations of microplastics found in shrimp tissues. ...

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Comparing microplastic contamination in vannamei shrimp aquaculture: the impact of concrete and HDPE pond materials in Probolinggo, East Java, Indonesia

... Achieving this goal requires time, incremental actions, and careful consideration of economic impacts, yet it has faced strong resistance in countries like the United States, India, and Bahrain [46]. Experts recommend a legally binding global reduction target for problematic plastics, which would increase their value as production decreases, helping to offset economic consequences [52]. At the operational level, establishing favorable economic conditions to mitigate the high investment costs of producing new (bio)polymers on an industrial scale has also been identified as a priority [19]. ...

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Analyzing Government Plans for the Plastic Value Chain in the Latin American Circular Economy

... Further, a collaborative approach is recommended, as well as the use of standardized methods, such as LCA, and integration of Indigenous knowledge and other cultural and socioeconomic factors in research 45 . Although the INC Chair's Text offers hope for a meaningful global agreement, researchers have flagged the risk of vested interests steering the INC process and are thus calling for the establishment of a science body to guide the process and ensure that unbiased decisions are made 105 . The recent INC-5 session revealed industry's strong interests in influencing the outcomes of the INC process, as fossil fuel and chemical industry lobbyists outnumbered the representatives from the European Union delegations combined, were threefold compared with the number of independent scientists representing the Scientists' Coalition for an Effective Plastics Treaty, and nine times greater than the Indigenous Peoples Caucus 106 . ...

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Strengthening global plastic policy with systems analysis