Report
Pellet sampling for monitoring of persistent organic pollutants in Mozambican coast
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| Pellet sampling at Portuguese island | Pellets collected from Portuguese | Cityscape in Maputo city |
Junki Hosoda
Pellet sampling for monitoring of persistent organic pollutants in Mozambican coast
Destination and period: Mozambique, 1-10 Sep, 2013
The objective of this training was to collect plastic resin pellets at same place in Maputo, Mozambique, where collaborators of our laboratory have collected pellets since 4 to 5 years ago to investigate marine pollution by persistent organic pollutants (POPs) and its temporal change. One of the locations we collected sample this time named “Portuguese island” is a beach where our collaborator surveyed in 2007. From the analytical result in 2007, the highest concentrations of HCHs was detected. So the main purpose of this field training in Mozambique was collecting pellets from the beach. Portuguese island is a desert island and it has beautiful beaches. Despite of such situation, we detected plastic pellets and fragments, and I realized a spread of plastic pollution though I have already known plastic pellets are detected all over the world including remote islands. In my master thesis, I will analyze the sample from Portuguese island to study temporal change of POPs pollution especially how the situation of HCHs pollution has changed since in 2007. The analytical results itself is important for understanding current situation of pollution and its temporal change as well as a first step of environmental improvement.
Key words: POPs, Temporal change, Plastic resin pellets