Microplastics found in faeces of Swiss wild animals
Environmentalists find microplastics in faeces of Swiss wild animals
Keystone-SDA
Select your language
Generated with artificial intelligence.
Listening: Microplastics found in faeces of Swiss wild animals
Swiss environmentalists and scientists have found microplastics in the faeces of roe deer, deer, wild boar, hares, chamois, foxes, martens, badgers and wolves.
This content was published on
2 minutes
Keystone-SDA
Deutsch
de
Umweltschützer finden Mikroplastik in Kot von Schweizer Wildtieren
Original
Plastic contamination affects regions throughout Switzerland, according to a report published on Tuesday by the environmental organisation Greenpeace.
However, there were considerable differences between the faecal samples collected. For example, more than 600 microplastic particles per gram were found in the faeces of two wild boars in cantons Valais and Bern. The faeces of a wolf collected in Graubünden, on the other hand, contained only seven plastic particles per gram, and that of a deer in Zurich contained four.
Researchers from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Lausanne (EPFL) analysed 15 faecal samples for the report. They dried the faeces and then dissolved them in hydrogen peroxide. They sieved this mixture through a filter.
The extent of environmental pollution caused by microplastics requires immediate and effective national and international political measures, Greenpeace wrote in the report. This is the only way to reduce the amount of microplastics in the short term, it said.
Translated from German by DeepL/ts
We select the most relevant news for an international audience and use automatic translation tools to translate them into English. A journalist then reviews the translation for clarity and accuracy before publication.
Providing you with automatically translated news gives us the time to write more in-depth articles. The news stories we select have been written and carefully fact-checked by an external editorial team from news agencies such as Bloomberg or Keystone.
If you have any questions about how we work, write to us at english@swissinfo.ch
Popular Stories
More
Demographics
How retiring baby boomers could crash Swiss property market
This content was published on
Swiss politicians from across the political spectrum have called on the government to protect minorities in the face of continuing attacks in Syria.
Swiss court rejects appeal to release funds linked to former Ukraine regime
This content was published on
Swiss Supreme Court rejects appeal to unfreeze the assets of people linked to former Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych.
Sahara sand clouds Swiss visibility after Canadian smoke
This content was published on
Sahara dust has further clouded visibility in Swiss skies, adding to smoke particles that drifted over from forest fires in Canada.
Nuclear weapons spending exceeded $100 billion for first time
This content was published on
Spending by the nine nuclear powers topped the $100 billion mark for the first time last year, according to the NGO ICAN.
You can find an overview of ongoing debates with our journalists here . Please join us!
If you want to start a conversation about a topic raised in this article or want to report factual errors, email us at english@swissinfo.ch.