The latest episode in the American Chemical Society's (ACS) award-winning "Global Challenges/Chemistry Solutions" podcast series discusses the discovery that household washing machines seem to be a major source of so-called "microplastic" pollution -- bits of polyester and acrylic smaller than the head of a pin -- that researchers now have detected on ocean shorelines worldwide. In the podcast, Mark Anthony Browne, Ph.D., explains that the accumulation of microplastic debris in marine environments has raised health and safety concerns...

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