Page - 211 - in Freshwater Microplastics - Emerging Environmental Contaminants?

California approvedAssemblyBillNo. 888banning the use of plasticmicrobeads inpersonalcareproductsby2020[35], andanewUSinitiativeaimsatbanning the use ofmicrobeads in personal care products and cosmetics on a national level by mid-2017 [36]. The Canadian House of Commons have proposed a new order whichwill addmicrobeads to the national list of toxic substances, as a response to a vote to take immediatemeasures to phase outmicrobeads [37]. The environ- mental presence of microbeads has been documented [38], and the focus on microbeads is therefore scientifically valid. However, the major problem with plastic pollution seems to stem from other sources [39]. The “yuck factor” has played a role in the riskperception and subsequent political actiononmicrobeads. Plastics in products such as toothpaste are viewed as “unnecessary” (driver 6) and “unnatural.” Consumers therefore react emotionally negative toward this new, “unnecessary,” and “unnatural” use ofmicrobeads in consumer products, and this consumer attitude can be understood as an example of the “yuck factor.” Microbeads thus serve as an example of the importance of risk perception to societal action and furthermore how important risk communication and involve- ment of citizens canbe for societal reactions to an environmental problem. The secondpart of the chapter addresses howcitizen science has improved the risk perception of plastic pollution and finally discusses how it can be further expanded in order to involve citizens and thereby address the pollution better and further enable citizens to obtain informed perceptions of the plastic pollution problem. 5 CitizenScienceasConcept Science as a paid profession started in the later part of the nineteenth century [4]. Up until then scientific datawere produced by peoplewho collected the data duetointerest.SomefamousexamplesofcitizenscientistswereBenjaminFranklin andCharlesDarwin[4].Today’scitizenscience(CS) ismostcommonlyconducted whenprojects are specifically designed to combine knowledge and expertise from scientistsat research institutionswith theworkof theskilledamateurs,oftenwithin conservationbiologyandmonitoringstudies [40].Silvertown[4]proposed that the expanding use ofCS is driven by three factors: (1) greater access to the technical toolsneeded, (2)bringinginadditionalqualifiedlabor,and(3)agreaterdemandfor outreachwithinacademia. Inahistoricalcontext,CShasmostcommonlybeenused with conservation biology and naturemonitoring programs. Examples such as the Atlas Project in Australia, where BirdLife Australia has used CS to obtainmore than sevenmillion bird observations for their “Atlas ofAustralianBird” [41], and Herbaria@home,wheremuseumcollectionsofwildplantsareanalyzedbycitizens in the UK for more than a decade [42], serve as illustrations of such classic CS projects.CShashoweveralsobeenused tomonitorpollution.TheAirQualityEgg Project in theUSAandEurope isaCSproject thataimsatmonitoringairquality. It is based on a sensor systemdesigned to allow citizens to collect data onNO2 and RiskPerceptionofPlastic Pollution: Importance ofStakeholder Involvement. . . 211