Marine detectives: They're tracking syringes, blood vials, other disgusting stuff that washes up on our beaches
Partnership with PBAU may help solve mystery
For Diane Buhler, the vials of blood — still gooey inside with syrup-like bodily fluid — are the grossest trespassers left on Palm Beach by the receding high tide.
But the Friends of Palm Beach founder says microplastics — ground-up throwaways so small they practically become part of the ecosystem — are the most insidious.
Since 2016, Buhler’s nonprofit has collected 125,690 pounds of garbage from uncombed shores of Palm Beach, going beyond hyped weekend clean-up events to categorize and attempt to track down the origin of the passive nemesis brought ashore by currents and storms.
Now, Buhler and a group of marine debris detectives from Palm Beach Atlantic University are digging even deeper, to the very DNA of the bacteria found on the medical debris —including syringes, lancets, IV bags and vaccine vials.
“We want to see what kind of impact there could be for people,” said Linda Sedlacek, PBAU associate professor of oceanography and Earth science. “There was this push, years ago, that medical waste is no more of a hazard on the beach than any other plastic. We don’t totally agree with that.”
Dumping ground for ocean trash
Palm Beach County’s coastline is like a knuckle nosing into the Atlantic Ocean, making it a hot spot for garbage racing north in the nearby Gulf Stream current. Easterly winds lob the floating trash at the beach, where it can get tangled in seaweed or float back to sea to menace another coast.
After Hurricane Teddy’s faraway gusts made it to Palm Beach in September, more than 950 pounds of garbage was collected in about a week.
“It can be Earth-shattering some days, and very depressing,” Buhler said of the beach garbage. “Humans like to see the beach as a big sandbox, and the tractors make it look like that, but it’s just a litter box.”
Written evidence on the medical waste that hasn’t been washed away by saltwater or eaten by critters points to Caribbean islands and possibly Mexico and Brazil as places where it's entering the ocean, either through no-fault hurricane-type scenarios or improper disposal, Buhler said.
For years, she said, she tried to get government agencies interested in helping her stop the marine debris onslaught by finding the source of the problem, but she was unsuccessful.
Cleanup requires coordinated effort
While the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has a marine debris program for Florida and the Caribbean, its focus isn’t the gumshoe investigative work it takes to track down polluters. A new work plan released in April prioritizes reducing derelict vessels and fishing gear, increasing the ability to respond to debris emergencies, upping community action, and improving reporting mechanisms.
“We deal with everything in Florida from small micro-plastics to large abandoned vessels, and I can’t say one is worse than the other because they all have different impacts,” said Ashley Hill, NOAA’s marine debris regional coordinator for Florida and the Caribbean.
So Buhler connected with Sedlacek, who agreed to work on tracking the medical waste. Sedlacek looks for identifying marks on each piece and has emailed manufacturers with queries on where the items were sold — with little luck.
“I’m working on those relationships,” Sedlacek said. “Each lot number is going to multiple places, so they don’t have to worry about getting anyone in trouble.”
After Hurricane Isaias, which brushed by Palm Beach County in early August as a strong tropical storm, there was up to four times the normal amount of medical debris on Palm Beach, Sedlacek said.
Sedlacek is also looking at what is growing in or on the medical waste. Despite studies that show bacteria couldn’t survive in the ocean because heat and ultraviolet light would kill it, she said she’s finding otherwise.
From a single lancet picked up after Isaias, four different bacteria are growing, including blood-eating bacteria that she suspects could be a pathogen. Pathogens can cause disease.
“To me, that is scary,” Sedlacek said.
Source of lollipop sticks sought
Less disturbing, but still harmful, are plastic lollipop sticks being studied by Loggerhead Marinelife Center conservation manager Katie O'Hara.
At first, she said she didn’t know what the white sticks with holes at the end were, but they were washing up on Palm Beach County beaches by the thousands. Since 2018, about 4,050 have been removed.
The holes, O'Hara eventually discovered, are what hold the candy on the stick. Different lollipops have a different shape and number of holes.
“We’ve been just really baffled and sent out a call to our partners asking if anyone else noticed this crazy influx of lollipop sticks,” O’Hara said. “It’s been driving me bat crazy because we get so many.”
Buhler began shipping the sticks she finds to O’Hara, who said that whenever she travels she ducks into candy shops to buy lollipops looking for brands that have plastic sticks. She’s identified the brand Chupa Chups, originally a Spanish company, as one of the biggest culprits.
“Currents work as a conveyor belt and everything is interconnected,” O’Hara said. “Our trash is everyone else’s trash and vice-versa.”
EPA announcement in Boca Raton
In October, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Andrew Wheeler announced a new federal effort to reduce marine debris internationally.
While his announcement focused on reducing trash coming from Asian countries, there was also an emphasis on developing new plastics that are highly recyclable or biodegradable. The U.S. Department of Energy awarded $27 million this year to pay for 12 such projects.
Wheeler said he also wants the multiple federal agencies that deal with marine debris to begin working in conjunction instead of haphazardly.
"Different agencies have done different things in this space over the years, but we have never addressed it in a comprehensive manner," Wheeler said after the October announcement at Florida Atlantic University in Boca Raton. "Instead of having a one-off, piecemeal approach, we are now all agreeing we will work together to solve the problem."
Still, that’s not a near-term solution for the medical waste on Palm Beach.
“We are trying to be very careful not to lay blame on anyone,” Sedlacek said. “At the same time, something needs to be done to correct the issue.”