Page - 268 - in Freshwater Microplastics - Emerging Environmental Contaminants?

• MPs in the freshwater environment are already outside their intended product cycle. Hence, it is difficult to address responsible stakeholders (producer, con- sumer,wastemanager, etc.). • Thus, it is evenmore important to clarify entry pathways into aquatic environ- ment, todefinestandardizedmethodsforexposureandhazardassessment,andto work in an integrated approach. Anadequate regulationofenvironmental (micro)plastics is ahugechallenge for researchandpolicy.Asplastics influenceallpartsofsociety,singlefieldsofscience orpolicycannot tackle this issueindividually.Duringthe lifetimeofasingleplastic product – from design and production to trade and consumption to the correct recycling or disposal at the end of its functional product life – regulatory respon- sibilities change. This provides various possibilities for regulators to intervene before plastics enter the environment. However, it requires an interdisciplinary coordination of measures on different statutory, political, economic, and social levels. Only the interplaybetweenall stakeholders fromall countries results insuccess. (Micro)plastic particles do not respect political frontiers and, thus, accumulate in interregionalwaterbodies. For this reason, theneed to treat this emergingenviron- mental issue in an international context is increasing. Although – or precisely because – we currently know little about the consequences of MPs in aquatic systems,we should develop and implementmeasures to reduce further emissions. This is especially true regarding the high persistence and accumulation of these materials in the environment and in accordancewith the precautionary principle. References 1.KrammJ,V€olkerC (2017)Understanding the risks ofmicroplastics.A social-ecological risk perspective. In:WagnerM,LambertS (eds)Freshwatermicroplastics: emergingenvironmen- tal contaminants?Springer,Heidelberg. doi:10.1007/978-3-319-61615-5_11 (in this volume) 2.BreuningerE,Ba¨nsch-BaltruschatB,BrennholtN,HatzkyS,ReifferscheidG,Koschorreck J (2016)Plastics inEuropean freshwater environments. Issuepaper (final version). In:Ba¨nsch- Baltruschat B, Brennholt N, Kochleus C, Reifferscheid G, Koschorreck J Conference on plastics in freshwater environments. pp16–71.UBADokumentationen05/2017. ISSN2199- 6571 3.Lambert S,WagnerM (2017)Microplastics are contaminants of emerging concern in fresh- water environments: an overview. In:WagnerM,Lambert S (eds) Freshwatermicroplastics: emerging environmental contaminants?Springer,Heidelberg. doi:10.1007/978-3-319-61615- 5_1 (in this volume) 4.EU (2008)Directive 2008/56/ECof the European Parliament and of theCouncil of 17 June 2008 establishing a framework for community action in the field of marine environmental policy. Marine Strategy Framework Directive (MSFD). http://eur-lex.europa.eu. Retrieved 4May2009 5.ChenC-L (2015) Regulation andmanagement ofmarine litter. In: BergmannM,GutowL, KlagesM(eds)Marine anthropogenic litter. Springer,Berlin, pp185–200 268 N.Brennholt et al.