title: Klaas-Jan Huntelaar

text: On 6 August 2009, Huntelaar transferred to Serie A club A.C. Milan for €17.75 million, signing a four-year contract. On 29 August, Huntelaar made his competitive league debut for Milan coming on as a sub in the 0–4 loss to cross-city rivals Inter Milan in the "Derby della Madonnina". After a slow start, Huntelaar scored his first Milan goals on 29 November in a 0–2 away win at Catania, scoring twice after coming on in the 84th minute.


title: Klaas-Jan Huntelaar

text: After the match, manager Leonardo stated that he would give Huntelaar more chances. However, he only appeared as a substitute for the next few matches, and because of the great form of teammate Marco Borriello, Huntelaar did not even appear as a substitute very often until Borriello's injury. Huntelaar capitalized on the opportunity by scoring his second brace of the season, helping Milan to a 3–2 defeat of Udinese. When Borriello hit bad form, Huntelaar was expected to play more often, but Leonardo chose to play veteran Filippo Inzaghi instead. On 3 April, Huntelaar started the match against Cagliari and scored from 30 meters out to stretch his goal tally to seven.


title: Klaas-Jan Huntelaar

text: On 31 August 2010, Bundesliga club Schalke 04 signed Huntelaar for a fee of €12 million. On 19 September, he scored his first goal for Schalke in a 1–3 home defeat against regional rivals Borussia Dortmund, and he added two in a Champions League group stage match against Lyon on 24 November 2010. On 21 May 2011, Huntelaar scored a brace against MSV Duisburg in the 2011 DFB-Pokal Final, securing a 5–0 win for Schalke, the club's fifth DFB-Pokal championship and their first major trophy in nine years. Huntelaar finished the 2010–11 season by scoring 13 goals in 35 matches.


title: Klaas-Jan Huntelaar

text: On 31 July 2011, Huntelaar scored four times in an 11–1 cup thrashing away to Teningen of the Landesliga Südbaden. and he scored a hat-trick to win Schalke's first points of the season in a 5–1 win over 1. FC Köln at the Veltins-Arena. On 25 August, Huntelaar scored four goals, including two penalties, in a 6–1 win in the qualifying play-off round of the UEFA Europa League against HJK Helsinki, allowing Schalke to overturn a 2–0 first leg deficit and advance to the group stage 6–3 on aggregate. After the resignation of head coach Ralf Rangnick on 22 September 2011, former Royal Blues manager Huub Stevens returned to the team for their game against Hamburger SV on 2 October. Huntelaar powered his side to victory in Stevens' first game back, heading in a sensational opening goal and netting the winner in the 73rd minute with a flick past goalkeeper Jaroslav Drobný. He scored a hat-trick in a 4–1 win over Twente in the Europa League, and finished the season with 38 goals in 37 appearances. He said in February 2012 that he would reach his playing peak in two years time, because of his later physical development. Huntelaar scored a second-half brace in the club's 3–2 victory over Werder Bremen on the last day of the season, earning his side automatic qualification into the group stage of the Champions League. The two goals also meant that Huntelaar finished the season with 29 goals from 34 league games, making him the first Dutch player to earn top scorer in the Bundesliga.


title: Klaas-Jan Huntelaar

text: On 23 December 2012, Schalke announced that Huntelaar signed a two-year contract extension to 30 June 2015. Huntelaar finished the 2012–13 season with 16 goals in 35 matches. The following season, Huntelaar scored 14 goals in 21 matches.


title: Klaas-Jan Huntelaar

text: On 31 January 2015, Huntelaar received a straight red card for a slide tackle on Manuel Schmiedebach of Hannover 96. The German Football Association (DFB) gave him a six-match ban, which Schalke appealed. On 10 March 2015, Huntelaar scored twice against former club Real Madrid in a 3–4 victory at the Santiago Bernabéu. He had not scored a league goal since November 2014, after going over 1,000 minutes and 13 games without scoring. This has led to some minor criticism over his performance in the current season from his fans and the team's coach. This goalless run, however, ended on 2 May 2015, when he scored an equaliser against VfB Stuttgart. Huntelaar finished the season with 14 goals in 37 matches.


title: Klaas-Jan Huntelaar

text: On 8 August 2015, Huntelaar marked his 2015–16 season debut by scoring in a 0–5 win at MSV Duisburg in the first round of the German Cup. Huntelaar finished the 2015–16 season with 16 goals in 40 matches.


title: Klaas-Jan Huntelaar

text: Due to injuries and a drop in form, during the 2016–17 Bundesliga season Huntelaar only made 16 appearances in the league (7 starts, 9 appearances from the bench), and overall 24 appearances in all competitions (10 starts, 14 appearances from the bench), scoring a total of only five goals, his lowest season goal tally at Schalke 04.


title: Klaas-Jan Huntelaar

text: On 1 June 2017, Ajax confirmed that they had re-signed Huntelaar. In 2019, he won with Ajax the Eredivisie, KNVB Cup and Johan Cruyff Shield; in addition, he played in the 2018–19 UEFA Champions League, in which his team reached the semi-finals.


title: Klaas-Jan Huntelaar

text: On 14 January 2021, Huntelaar scored twice within three minutes of coming on as a substitute to give Ajax a 3–1 win over FC Twente.


title: Klaas-Jan Huntelaar

text: On 19 January 2021, Schalke 04 confirmed that they had signed Huntelaar until the end of the season. With his goal in the 1–2 defeat against Bayer Leverkusen on 3 April 2021, he became Schalke's oldest Bundesliga goalscorer at the age of 37 years and 234 days.


title: Klaas-Jan Huntelaar

text: Huntelaar played in the 2001 FIFA World Youth Championship for the Netherlands under coach Louis van Gaal. He scored two goals in the tournament before the Dutch were eliminated in the quarter-finals by Egypt. After scoring 44 goals in 47 appearances for Heerenveen and Ajax in all competitions during 2005–06, Huntelaar was named in the preliminary Netherlands squad for the 2006 FIFA World Cup, but was not selected for the final squad and instead sent to play in the UEFA Under-21 Championship held in Portugal. Huntelaar became top scorer in the tournament with four goals including two in the final on 4 June 2006 to help the Netherlands beat Ukraine 3–0 and claim their first ever title at under-21 level. Huntelaar was named as one of two strikers in the UEFA Team of the Tournament. In the aftermath, Huntelaar was promoted from the under-21 squad where he remains the Netherlands all-time top goalscorer with 18 goals in 22 matches.


title: Klaas-Jan Huntelaar

text: Following his achievements with the under-21 squad, Huntelaar was selected by senior team coach Marco van Basten for the Dutch national team's next friendly match, away against the Republic of Ireland on 16 August 2006. He scored two goals and provided two assists on his senior debut in the Netherlands' 0–4 away win at Lansdowne Road, making him the first Dutch player to score on his full international debut for 28 years since Dick Nanninga in 1978.


title: Klaas-Jan Huntelaar

text: After being left out for a number of games, he was recalled to the squad in October 2007 for the UEFA Euro 2008 Qualifying games against Romania and Slovenia. Due to the suspension of striker Ruud van Nistelrooy, Huntelaar was in the starting line-up against Slovenia and went on to score his first competitive international goal in the Netherlands 2–0 victory. Huntelaar was included in the Netherlands Euro 2008 squad, and scored in his only appearance in the tournament with the opening goal of their final Group C match against Romania in a 2–0 victory.


title: Klaas-Jan Huntelaar

text: With the retirement of Ruud van Nistelrooy, Huntelaar became new Dutch national team coach Bert van Marwijk's first choice striker for the 2010 World Cup qualification match against Iceland in October 2008, and scored in a 2–0 victory. Huntelaar was included in the preliminary squad for the 2010 World Cup in South Africa. On 27 May 2010, Van Marwijk announced that the player would be part of the final squad of 23 participating in the competition. On 24 June, he replaced goalscorer Robin van Persie in the 58th minute against Cameroon at the Green Point Stadium in Cape Town and scored the winning goal in the 83rd minute in a 2–1 win, taking his goal tally to 16 in 34 games for the Netherlands. Huntelaar also came on as a substitute for Van Persie in the round of 16 game against Slovakia and in the quarter-final against Brazil. He was an unused substitute in the final against Spain as the Netherlands lost their third World Cup final 0–1 due to a late goal by Andrés Iniesta.


title: Klaas-Jan Huntelaar

text: On 3 September 2010, Huntelaar scored a hat-trick against San Marino in a Euro 2012 qualifying match away at the Stadio Olimpico, a match which the Netherlands won 0–5. He followed this up with both goals for the Netherlands as they defeated Finland on 7 September 2010 in Rotterdam.


title: Klaas-Jan Huntelaar

text: Huntelaar added further goals to his tally, with a double in a 4–1 win against Sweden on 12 October 2010. He was the top goalscorer in the UEFA Euro 2012 qualifying competition with 12 goals, leaving him one shy of Northern Ireland's David Healy's all-time qualification record.


title: Klaas-Jan Huntelaar

text: At the 2014 World Cup, Huntelaar came off the bench for Robin van Persie in the round of 16 match against Mexico with the Netherlands 0–1 down. He went on to provide the assist for Wesley Sneijder, and scored the winning goal with an injury-time penalty to qualify the team for the quarter-finals. Huntelaar admitted after the match that team captain Arjen Robben was supposed to take the penalty but offered him instead to take the penalty since Huntelaar was playing well after leaving the bench.


title: Klaas-Jan Huntelaar

text: Huntelaar was described as a "prolific striker" with a "brilliant first touch" and was compared in style to players such as Marco van Basten and Ruud van Nistelrooy. In 2009, former Netherlands national team manager Louis van Gaal was quoted saying about the player, "in the penalty area, he is the best player in the world, bar none."


title: Klaas-Jan Huntelaar

text: Following the departure of Ajax' director of football affairs Marc Overmars, Huntelaar joined his former club's technical staff, where he will be assisting technical manager Gerry Hamstra and head coach Alfred Schreuder.


title: Klaas-Jan Huntelaar

text: Since 2000, Huntelaar has been in a relationship with his girlfriend Maddy Schoolderman. The couple have four children together: sons Seb (born 9 April 2009), Axel (born 20 July 2011), and Jim (born 2 January 2017), and daughter Puck (born 6 August 2013). His nephew Koen Huntelaar is now a professional footballer.


title: Cat People (1982 film)

text: Cat People is a 1982 American supernatural horror film directed by Paul Schrader and starring Nastassja Kinski, Malcolm McDowell, John Heard, and Annette O'Toole. It is a remake of the 1942 RKO Radio Pictures film of the same name. Giorgio Moroder composed the film's score (the second Schrader film to be scored by Moroder, after "American Gigolo"), including the theme song, which features lyrics and vocals by David Bowie. Wilbur Stark and Jerry Bruckheimer served as executive producers.


title: Cat People (1982 film)

text: A prologue set in an undisclosed, primitive human settlement shows a sacrificial maiden being tied to a tree. A black panther approaches and rests its paws on her, and the scene fades to black. Another girl with feline features approaches a similar big cat in a cave, without incurring its attack.


title: Cat People (1982 film)

text: A close-up of her face segues to that of similarly featured Irena Gallier, who travels to present-day New Orleans from Canada to reconnect with her brother Paul. Irena was raised in foster care after they were orphaned. Paul, who spent his childhood in psych wards, is now involved in a church and lives with his Creole housekeeper Female.


title: Cat People (1982 film)

text: That night, a prostitute named Ruthie walks into a fleabag motel to meet a john, but instead finds a black panther that mauls her foot. The police and zoologists Oliver, Alice and Joe capture the black panther. Meanwhile, Irena wakes to find Paul missing. Female guesses he went to the mission and urges Irena to enjoy New Orleans on her own.


title: Cat People (1982 film)

text: Irena visits the zoo, is drawn to the newly captured black panther and stays after closing hours. She is discovered by Oliver, the zoo's curator, who takes her to dinner and offers her a job in the gift shop. Irena reveals she is a virgin in conversation with Alice, who shares a romantic history (and is still in love) with Oliver and sees her as a rival. One day the black panther tears Joe's arm off during a routine cage cleaning. Joe bleeds to death and Oliver resolves to euthanize the cat, only to find it missing. In its cage lies a puddle of melted flesh like the one found by the motel prostitute.


title: Cat People (1982 film)

text: Paul turns up and makes a sexual advance towards Irena. She flees, flags down a police car and has second thoughts about turning Paul in, but a police dog catches a strong scent from the house and a detective is called in. In Paul's basement, police find shackles, bones, and remains of dozens of corpses. They figure Paul is a serial killer who fed corpses to a captive black panther, and call in Oliver and Alice to inspect.


title: Cat People (1982 film)

text: On the run from Paul, Irena takes refuge in a frustrated romance with Oliver, fearing the consequences of physical intimacy. Paul visits Irena again and explains their shared werecat heritage, thus revealing himself as the escaped murderous leopard. Mating with a human transforms a werecat into a black panther, and only by killing a human can it regain human form. He tells her their parents were siblings because werecats are ancestrally incestuous and only mates between werecats prevents the transformation. He resumes his sexual advances, hoping Irena will accept their predicament, but she does not. Paul then transforms, attacks Oliver and is shot by Alice. Oliver starts a necropsy on Paul. A green gas emanates from the surgical cut and a human arm and hand reach up from within Paul's corpse. Before he can document this, Paul's corpse melts into a pool of green slime.


title: Cat People (1982 film)

text: Irena's feline instincts start to emerge, and she stalks and nearly attacks Alice twice. She later mates with Oliver and transforms into a black panther but she flees, sparing his life, and is later trapped on a bridge by police. Oliver arrives in time to see her jump off the bridge. Realizing where she is headed, he confronts Irena at a secluded lake house. She has regained human form by killing the house's caretaker. Irena tells Oliver she did not kill him because she loves him, and begs him to kill her. When he refuses, she begs him, then, to make love to her again so she can transform and "be with [her] own kind". Oliver ties Irena naked to the bedposts by her arms and legs to restrain her, and mates with her.


title: Cat People (1982 film)

text: Some time later, Oliver is again in a one-sided relationship with Alice. He stops at the cage holding the "recaptured panther" - Irena, now permanently trapped in her black panther form. Oliver reaches through the bars, casually hand-feeds and strokes the now-docile Irena's neck.


title: Cat People (1982 film)

text: Director Schrader has said, in relation to the erotic and horror aspects of "Cat People", that the film "contains more skin than blood". He has described the film as being more about the mythical than the realistic. He has likened the relation between Oliver and Irena to Dante and Beatrice, putting the female on a pedestal.


title: Cat People (1982 film)

text: British based American producer Milton Subotsky bought the rights to "Cat People" from RKO and began developing a remake. Subotsky eventually passed the property to Universal. Initially, Roger Vadim was set to be the director of the remake. Alan Ormsby, the screenwriter of the remake, stated that the film went through three earlier scripts, two of which were written by Bob Clark. According to Ormsby, Vadim was very concerned that the film would appear sexist, as the woman who was sexually intense had to be destroyed. Ormsby changed this in the remake to have a male character who has the same problem.


title: Cat People (1982 film)

text: In the early 1980s, Universal Pictures hired director Paul Schrader to direct the remake. The remake was announced and began shooting in 1981. According to cinematographer John Bailey, Schrader paid homage to the stalking scene in the original with a scene featuring Annette O'Toole's character jogging through a park as she appears to be stalked. Bailey and Schrader also remade the swimming pool scene. Bailey recalled that the two carefully studied the original scene, taking note of how the shadows reflected against the pool. Bailey stated that the pool sequence was the most similar of the homages, remarking that the primary reason for this was that "we didn't think we could do it any better".


title: Cat People (1982 film)

text: The Blu-ray features interviews with Kinski, McDowell, Heard and O'Toole as well as director Schrader and composer Moroder. McDowell indicated that he was somewhat reluctant to make the film at first because he recalled the original film as "not being very good" but was convinced by Schrader's take on the material with its focus on the erotic horror elements. McDowell also revealed that the scene where he leaps on the bed in a cat-like fashion was shot with him jumping off the bed. They then ran the film backward. Heard discussed how he almost turned down the role because he believed it was a porno movie. He also recalled that he felt very awkward, particularly during the nude scenes. O'Toole discussed the fact that they used cougars that were dyed black because leopards are impossible to train.


title: Cat People (1982 film)

text: The film was released theatrically in the United States by Universal Studios on April 2, 1982. It grossed approximately $7 million at the U.S. box office.


title: Cat People (1982 film)

text: The film has been released twice on DVD in the United States; once by Image Entertainment in 1997 and again by Universal in


title: Cat People (1982 film)

text: Shout! Factory's division Scream Factory released the film in January 2014 on Blu-ray, when they announced on their Facebook page that they were releasing films from the 1980s in early 2014.


title: Cat People (1982 film)

text: On Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 63% based on reviews from 56 critics, with a weighted average of 6.1/10. Its consensus reads: "Paul Schrader's kinky reimagining of "Cat People" may prove too grisly and lurid for some audiences, but its provocative style and Nastassja Kinski's hypnotic performance should please viewers who like a little gasoline with their fire". On Metacritic, the film has a score of 62% based on reviews from 16 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".


title: Cat People (1982 film)

text: Roger Ebert of the "Chicago Sun-Times" gave the film a three and a half out of four star rating: ""Cat People" is a good movie in an old tradition, a fantasy-horror film that takes itself just seriously enough to work, has just enough fun to be entertaining, contains elements of intrinsic fascination in its magnificent black leopards, and ends in one way just when we were afraid it was going to end in another".


title: Cat People (1982 film)

text: "Variety" also gave the film a positive rating by praising Nastassja Kinski's performance: "Kinski was essential to the film as conceived, and she's endlessly watchable". Leonard Maltin awarded the film a mixed two out of a possible four stars, calling it "sexy, bloody, technically well crafted, but uneven and ultimately unsatisfying".


title: Cat People (1982 film)

text: However, Nastassja Kinski stated, when being interviewed by her friend and actress Jodie Foster, in "Film Comment" that she disliked the film, describing it as "slick" and "manipulative". This surprised Foster, who asserted she thoroughly enjoyed the film.


title: Cat People (1982 film)

text: Christopher John reviewed "Cat People" in "Ares Magazine" #13 and commented that ""Cat People" is distinguished as one of the year's top science fantasies for several reasons: aside from its superior camera work, tight story line and the rest, the movie told a story that mainstream filmmakers shy away from – a sexual story".


title: Cat People (1982 film)

text: The soundtrack album was released by MCA Records the same week as the film. The theme song, "Cat People (Putting Out Fire)", was performed by David Bowie, who wrote the lyrics to music composed by Giorgio Moroder. The song was released as a single in 1982.


title: Sonia Agarwal

text: Sonia Agarwal is an Indian actress known for her works predominantly in Tamil cinema and a few Telugu, Malayalam and Kannada films. She is best known for her performances in the films such as "Kaadhal Kondein" (2003), "7G Rainbow Colony" (2004) and "Pudhupettai" (2006), all of which are directed by her ex-husband, Selvaraghavan.


title: Sonia Agarwal

text: Featuring her former brother-in-law Dhanush, "Kaadhal Kondein" became a huge success and she was widely appreciated for her performance as "Divya" in the film, which brought her into the limelight and fetched her the ITFA Best New Actress Award at International Tamil Film Awards in 2004. She acted alongside Silambarasan and Vijay in the films "Kovil" and "Madhurey", respectively. After appearing in the films "Oru Kalluriyin Kathai" and "Oru Naal Oru Kanavu" in 2005, both of which failing to perform at the box office, she got roles in the films "Thiruttu Payale" and "Pudhupettai". The former was, directed by Susi Ganesan, became a highly successful film, whilst the latter, another Selvaraghavan film, received universal critical acclaim.


title: Sonia Agarwal

text: Born in Chandigarh, Sonia's mother tongue is Punjabi. Sonia married Selvaraghavan, a director in Tamil cinema, in December 2006. She gave up acting after her marriage. The couple divorced in 2010. She has since returned to performing.


title: Sonia Agarwal

text: During her school days, Sonia got an offer to act in a serial on Zee TV. She then made her film debut with the 2002 Telugu film "Nee Premakai", in which she did a small role, after which she acted in a Kannada film "Chandu" opposite Sudeep.


title: Sonia Agarwal

text: After getting divorced, she made a re-entry, playing a supporting role in the multi-starrer "Vaanam", following which she signed up for four projects, three in Tamil and one in Malayalam, in quick succession. Her next releases were "Sadhurangam", opposite Srikanth once again, in 2011 and "Oru Nadigayin Vakku Moolam" in early 2012. Her films include "Poi Sollathedi" and "Achchamenn"did not do well in box office. In 2018, she has signed four Malayalam films.


title: Microplastics

text: Microplastics are fragments of any type of plastic less than in length, according to the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and the European Chemicals Agency. They cause pollution by entering natural ecosystems from a variety of sources, including cosmetics, clothing, food packaging, and industrial processes.


title: Microplastics

text: The term "macroplastics" is used to differentiate microplastics from larger plastic waste, such as plastic bottles. Two classifications of microplastics are currently recognized. Primary microplastics include any plastic fragments or particles that are already 5.0 mm in size or less before entering the environment. These include microfibers from clothing, microbeads, and plastic pellets (also known as nurdles). Secondary microplastics arise from the degradation (breakdown) of larger plastic products through natural weathering processes after entering the environment. Such sources of secondary microplastics include water and soda bottles, fishing nets, plastic bags, microwave containers, tea bags and tire wear. Both types are recognized to persist in the environment at high levels, particularly in aquatic and marine ecosystems, where they cause water pollution. 35% of all ocean microplastics come from textiles/clothing, primarily due to the erosion of polyester, acrylic, or nylon-based clothing, often during the washing process. However, microplastics also accumulate in the air and terrestrial ecosystems.


title: Microplastics

text: Because plastics degrade slowly (often over hundreds to thousands of years), microplastics have a high probability of ingestion, incorporation into, and accumulation in the bodies and tissues of many organisms. The toxic chemicals that come from both the ocean and runoff can also biomagnify up the food chain. In terrestrial ecosystems, microplastics have been demonstrated to reduce the viability of soil ecosystems and reduce weight of earthworms. The cycle and movement of microplastics in the environment are not fully known, but research is currently underway to investigate the phenomenon. Deep layer ocean sediment surveys in China (2020) show the presence of plastics in deposition layers far older than the invention of plastics, leading to suspected underestimation of microplastics in surface sample ocean surveys. Microplastics have also been found in the high mountains, at great distances from their source.


title: Microplastics

text: The term "microplastics" was introduced in 2004 by Professor Richard Thompson, a marine biologist at the University of Plymouth in the United Kingdom.


title: Microplastics

text: Microplastics are common in our world today. In 2014, it was estimated that there are between 15 and 51 trillion individual pieces of microplastic in the world's oceans, which was estimated to weigh between 93,000 and 236,000 metric tons.


title: Microplastics

text: Primary microplastics are small pieces of plastic that are purposefully manufactured. They are usually used in facial cleansers and cosmetics, or in air blasting technology. In some cases, their use in medicine as vectors for drugs was reported. Microplastic "scrubbers", used in exfoliating hand cleansers and facial scrubs, have replaced traditionally used natural ingredients, including ground almond shells, oatmeal, and pumice. Primary microplastics have also been produced for use in air blasting technology. This process involves blasting acrylic, melamine, or polyester microplastic scrubbers at machinery, engines, and boat hulls to remove rust and paint. As these scrubbers are used repeatedly until they diminish in size and their cutting power is lost, they often become contaminated with heavy metals such as cadmium, chromium, and lead. Although many companies have committed to reducing the production of microbeads, there are still many bioplastic microbeads that also have a long degradation life cycle similar to normal plastic.


title: Microplastics

text: Secondary plastics are small pieces of plastic derived from the breakdown of larger plastic debris, both at sea and on land. Over time, a culmination of physical, biological, and chemphotodegradation, including photo-oxidation caused by sunlight exposure, can reduce the structural integrity of plastic debris to a size that is eventually undetectable to the naked eye. This process of breaking down large plastic material into much smaller pieces is known as fragmentation. It is considered that microplastics might further degrade to be smaller in size, although the smallest microplastic reportedly detected in the oceans at present is 1.6 micrometres (6.3×10 in) in diameter. The prevalence of microplastics with uneven shapes suggests that fragmentation is a key source.


title: Microplastics

text: There are countless sources of both primary and secondary microplastics. Microplastic fibers enter the environment from the washing of synthetic clothing. Tires, composed partly of synthetic styrene-butadiene rubber, will erode into tiny plastic and rubber particles as they are used. Furthermore, 2.0-5.0 mm plastic pellets, used to create other plastic products, often enter ecosystems due to spillages and other accidents.


title: Microplastics

text: A Norwegian Environment Agency review report about microplastics published in early 2015 states it would be beneficial to classify these sources as primary, as long as microplastics from these sources are added from human society since the "start of the pipe", and their emissions are inherently a result of human material and product use and not secondary defragmentation in the nature.


title: Microplastics

text: Depending on the definition used, nanoplastics are less than 1 μm (i.e. 1000 nm) or less than 100 nm in size. Speculations over nanoplastics in the environment range from it being a temporary byproduct during the fragmentation of microplastics to it being an invisible environmental threat at potentially high and continuously rising concentrations. The presence of nanoplastics in the North Atlantic Subtropical Gyre has been confirmed and recent developments in Raman spectroscopy coupled with optical tweezers (Raman Tweezers) as well as nano-fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (nano-FTIR) or atomic force infrared (AFM-IR) are promising answers in the near future regarding the nanoplastic quantity in the environment. Fluorescence could represent a unique tool for the identification and quantification of nanoplastics, since it allows the development of fast, easy, cheap, and sensitive methods.


title: Microplastics

text: Nanoplastics are thought to be a risk to environmental and human health. Due to their small size, nanoplastics can cross cellular membranes and affect the functioning of cells. Nanoplastics are lipophilic and models show that polyethylene nanoplastics can be incorporated into the hydrophobic core of lipid bilayers. Nanoplastics are also shown to cross the epithelial membrane of fish accumulating in various organs including the gallbladder, pancreas, and the brain. Little is known on adverse health effects of nanoplastics in organisms including humans. In zebrafish, polystyrene nanoplastics can induce a stress response pathway altering glucose and cortisol levels, which is potentially tied to behavioral changes in stress phases. In Daphnia, polystyrene nanoplastic can be ingested by the freshwater cladoceran Daphnia pulex and affect its growth and reproduction as well as induce stress defense, including the ROS production and MAPK-HIF-1/NF-κB-mediated antioxidant system.


title: Microplastics

text: Most microplastic pollution comes from textiles, tires and city dust which account for over 80% of all microplastic in the environment. The existence of microplastics in the environment is often established through aquatic studies. These include taking plankton samples, analyzing sandy and muddy sediments, observing vertebrate and invertebrate consumption, and evaluating chemical pollutant interactions. Through such methods, it has been shown that there are microplastics from multiple sources in the environment.


title: Microplastics

text: Microplastics could contribute up to 30% of the Great Pacific Garbage Patch polluting the world's oceans and, in many developed countries, are a bigger source of marine plastic pollution than the visible larger pieces of marine litter, according to a 2017 IUCN report.


title: Microplastics

text: Wear and tear from tires significantly contributes to the flow of (micro-)plastics into the environment. Estimates of emissions of microplastics to the environment in Denmark are between per year. Secondary microplastics (e.g. from car and truck tires or footwear) are more important than primary microplastics by two orders of magnitude. The formation of microplastics from the degradation of larger plastics in the environment is not accounted for in the study.


title: Microplastics

text: The estimated per capita emission ranges from 0.23 to 4.7 kg/year, with a global average of 0.81 kg/year. The emissions from car tires (wear reaching 100%) are substantially higher than those of other sources of microplastics, e.g., airplane tires (2%), artificial turf (wear 12–50%), brakes (wear 8%), and road markings (wear 5%). In the case of road markings, recent field study indicated that they were protected by a layer of glass beads and their contribution was only between 0.1 and 4.3 g/person/year, which would constitute approximately 0.7% of all of the secondary microplastics emissions; this value agrees with some emissions estimates. Emissions and pathways depend on local factors like road type or sewage systems. The relative contribution of tire wear and tear to the total global amount of plastics ending up in our oceans is estimated to be 5–10%. In air, 3–7% of the particulate matter (PM) is estimated to consist of tire wear and tear, indicating that it may contribute to the global health burden of air pollution which has been projected by the World Health Organization (WHO) at 3 million deaths in 2012. Pollution from tire wear and tear also enters the food chain, but further research is needed to assess human health risks.


title: Microplastics

text: Studies have shown that many synthetic fibers, such as polyester, nylon, acrylics, and spandex, can be shed from clothing and persist in the environment. Each garment in a load of laundry can shed more than 1,900 fibers of microplastics, with fleeces releasing the highest percentage of fibers, over 170% more than other garments. For an average wash load of , over 700,000 fibers could be released per wash.


title: Microplastics

text: Washing machine manufacturers have also reviewed research into whether washing machine filters can reduce the amount of microfiber fibers that need to be treated by sewage treatment facilities.


title: Microplastics

text: These microfibers have been found to persist throughout the food chain from zooplankton to larger animals such as whales. The primary fiber that persist throughout the textile industry is polyester which is a cheap cotton alternative that can be easily manufactured. However, these types of fibers contribute greatly to the persistence to microplastics in terrestrial, aerial, and marine ecosystems. The process of washing clothes causes garments to lose an average of over 100 fibers per liter of water. This has been linked with health effects possibly caused by the release of monomers, dispersive dyes, mordants, and plasticizers from manufacturing. The occurrence of these types of fibers in households has been shown to represent 33% of all fibers in indoor environments.


title: Microplastics

text: Textile fibers have been studied in both indoor and outdoor environments to determine the average human exposure. The indoor concentration was found to be 1.0–60.0 fibers/m, whereas the outdoor concentration was much lower at 0.3–1.5 fibers/m. The deposition rate indoors was 1586–11,130 fibers per day/m which accumulates to around 190-670 fibers/mg of dust. The largest concern with these concentrations is that it increases exposure to children and the elderly, which can cause adverse health effects.


title: Microplastics

text: Some companies have replaced natural exfoliating ingredients with microplastics, usually in the form of "microbeads" or "micro-exfoliates". These products are typically composed of polyethylene, a common component of plastics, but they can also be manufactured from polypropylene, polyethylene terephthalate (PET), and nylon. They are often found in face washes, hand soaps, and other personal care products; the beads are usually washed into the sewage system immediately after use. Their small size prevents them from fully being retained by preliminary treatment screens at wastewater plants, thereby allowing some to enter rivers and oceans. In fact, wastewater treatment plants only remove an average of 95–99.9% of microbeads because of their small design . This leaves an average of 0–7 microbeads per litre being discharged. Considering that one treatment plant discharges 160 trillion liters of water per day, around 8 trillion microbeads are released into waterways every day. This number does not account for the sewage sludge that is reused as fertilizer after the waste water treatment that has been known to still contain these microbeads.


title: Microplastics

text: Although many companies have committed to phasing out the use of microbeads in their products, according to research, there are at least 80 different facial scrub products that are still being sold with microbeads as a main component. This contributes to the 80 metric tons of microbead discharge per year by the United Kingdom alone, which not only has a negative impact upon the wildlife and food chain, but also upon levels of toxicity, as microbeads have been proven to absorb dangerous chemicals such as pesticides and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons. The restriction proposal by the European Chemicals Agency (ECHA) and reports by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and TAUW suggest that there are more than 500 microplastic ingredients that are widely used in cosmetics and personal care products.


title: Microplastics

text: Even when microbeads are removed from cosmetic products, there are still harmful products being sold with plastics in them. For example, acrylates copolymers cause toxic effects for waterways and animals if they are polluted. Acrylate copolymers also can emit styrene monomers when used in body products which increases a person's chances of cancer. Countries like New Zealand which have banned microbeads often pass over other polymers such as acrylates copolymer, which can be just as toxic to people and the environment.


title: Microplastics

text: Recreational and commercial fishing, marine vessels, and marine industries are all sources of plastic that can directly enter the marine environment, posing a risk to biota both as macroplastics, and as secondary microplastics following long-term degradation. Marine debris observed on beaches also arises from beaching of materials carried on inshore and ocean currents. Fishing gear is a form of plastic debris with a marine source. Discarded or lost fishing gear, including plastic monofilament line and nylon netting (sometimes called ghost nets), is typically neutrally buoyant and can, therefore, drift at variable depths within the oceans. Various countries have reported that microplastics from the industry and other sources have been accumulating in different types of seafood. In Indonesia, 55% of all fish species had evidence of manufactured debris similar to America which reported 67%. However, the majority of debris in Indonesia was plastic, while in North America the majority was synthetic fibers found in clothing and some types of nets. The implication from the fact that fish are being contaminated with microplastic is that those plastics and their chemicals will bioaccumulate in the food chain.


title: Microplastics

text: One study analyzed the plastic-derived chemical called polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs) in the stomachs of short-tailed shearwaters. It found that one-fourth of the birds had higher-brominated congeners that are not naturally found in their prey. However, the PBDE got into the birds' systems through plastic that was found in the stomachs of the birds. It is therefore not just the plastics that are being transferred through the food chain but the chemicals from the plastics as well.


title: Microplastics

text: The manufacture of plastic products uses granules and small resin pellets as their raw material. In the United States, production increased from 2.9 million pellets in 1960 to 21.7 million pellets in 1987. In 2019, plastic world production was 368 million tonnes; 51% were produced in Asia. China, the world's largest producer, created 31% of the world total. Through accidental spillage during land or sea transport, inappropriate use as packing materials, and direct outflow from processing plants, these raw materials can enter aquatic ecosystems. In an assessment of Swedish waters using an 80 µm mesh, KIMO Sweden found typical microplastic concentrations of 150–2,400 microplastics per m; in a harbor adjacent to a plastic production facility, the concentration was 102,000 per m.


title: Microplastics

text: Many industrial sites in which convenient raw plastics are frequently used are located near bodies of water. If spilled during production, these materials may enter the surrounding environment, polluting waterways. "More recently, Operation Cleansweep, a joint initiative of the American Chemistry Council and Society of the Plastics Industry, is aiming for industries to commit to zero pellet loss during their operations". Overall, there is a significant lack of research aimed at specific industries and companies that contribute to microplastics pollution.


title: Microplastics

text: Shipping has significantly contributed to marine pollution. Some statistics indicate that in 1970, commercial shipping fleets around the world dumped over 23,000 tons of plastic waste into the marine environment. In 1988, an international agreement (MARPOL 73/78, Annex V) prohibited the dumping of waste from ships into the marine environment. In the United States, the Marine Plastic Pollution Research and Control Act of 1987 prohibits discharge of plastics in the sea, including from naval vessels. However, shipping remains a dominant source of plastic pollution, having contributed around 6.5 million tons of plastic in the early 1990s. Research has shown that approximately 10% of the plastic found on the beaches in Hawaii are nurdles. In one incident on July 24, 2012, 150 tonnes of nurdles and other raw plastic material spilled from a shipping vessel off the coast near Hong Kong after a major storm. This waste from the Chinese company Sinopec was reported to have piled up in large quantities on beaches. While this is a large incident of spillage, researchers speculate that smaller accidents also occur and further contribute to marine microplastic pollution.


title: Microplastics

text: Since the emergence of the COVID-19 pandemic, the usage of medical face masks has sharply increased to reach approximately 89 million masks each . Single use face masks are made from polymers, such as polypropylene, polyurethane, polyacrylonitrile, polystyrene, polycarbonate, polyethylene, or polyester. The increase in production, consumption, and littering of face masks was added to the list of environmental challenges, due to the addition of plastic particles waste in the environment. After degrading, disposable face masks could break down into smaller size particles (under 5mm) emerging a new source of microplastic.


title: Microplastics

text: A report made in February 2020 by Oceans Asia, an organization committed to advocacy and research on marine pollution, confirms "the presence of face masks of different types and colors in an ocean in Hong Kong".


title: Microplastics

text: In one study, 93% of the bottled water from 11 different brands showed microplastic contamination. Per liter, researchers found an average of 325 microplastic particles. Of the tested brands, Nestlé Pure Life and Gerolsteiner bottles contained the most microplastic with 930 and 807 microplastic particles per liter (MPP/L), respectively. San Pellegrino products showed the least quantity of microplastic densities. Compared to water from taps, water from plastic bottles contained twice as much microplastic. Some of the contamination likely comes from the process of bottling and packaging the water.


title: Microplastics

text: In 2020 researchers reported that polypropylene infant feeding bottles with contemporary preparation procedures were found to cause microplastics exposure to infants ranging from 14,600 to 4,550,000 particles per capita per day in 48 regions. Microplastics release is higher with warmer liquids and similar with other polypropylene products such as lunchboxes. Unexpectedly, silicone rubber baby bottle nipples degrade over time from repeated steam sterilization, shedding micro- and nano-sized particles of silicone rubber, researchers found in 2021. They estimated that, using such heat-degraded nipples for a year, a baby will ingest more than 660,000 particles.


title: Microplastics

text: Common single-use plastic products – such as paper coffee cups that are lined with a thin plastic film inside – release trillions of microplastic-nanoparticles per liter into water during normal use. Single-use plastic products enter aquatic environments and "Local and statewide policies that reduce single-use plastics were identified as effective legislative actions that


title: Microplastics

text: Sewage treatment plants, also known as wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs), remove contaminants from wastewater, primarily from household sewage, using various physical, chemical, and biological processes. Most plants in developed countries have both primary and secondary treatment stages. In the primary stage of treatment, physical processes are employed to remove oils, sand, and other large solids using conventional filters, clarifiers, and settling tanks. Secondary treatment uses biological processes involving bacteria and protozoa to break down organic matter. Common secondary technologies are activated sludge systems, trickling filters, and constructed wetlands. The optional tertiary treatment stage may include processes for nutrient removal (nitrogen and phosphorus) and disinfection.


title: Microplastics

text: Microplastics have been detected in both the primary and secondary treatment stages of the plants. A groundbreaking 1998 study suggested that microplastic fibers would be a persistent indicator of sewage sludges and wastewater treatment plant outfalls. A study estimated that about one particle per liter of microplastics are being released back into the environment, with a removal efficiency of about 99.9%. A 2016 study showed that most microplastics are actually removed during the primary treatment stage where solid skimming and sludge settling are used. When these treatment facilities are functioning properly, the contribution of microplastics into oceans and surface water environments from WWTPs is not disproportionately large.


title: Microplastics

text: Sewage sludge is used for soil fertilizer in some countries, which exposes plastics in the sludge to the weather, sunlight, and other biological factors, causing fragmentation. As a result, microplastics from these biosolids often end up in storm drains and eventually into bodies of water. In addition, some studies show that microplastics do pass through filtration processes at some WWTPs. According to a study from the UK, samples taken from sewage sludge disposal sites on the coasts of six continents contained an average one particle of microplastic per liter. A significant amount of these particles was of clothing fibers from washing machine effluent.


title: Microplastics

text: According to a comprehensive review of scientific evidence published by the European Union's Scientific Advice Mechanism in 2019, microplastics are now present in every part of the environment. While there is no evidence of widespread ecological risk from microplastic pollution yet, risks are likely to become widespread within a century if pollution continues at its current rate.


title: Microplastics

text: Participants at the 2008 International Research Workshop on the Occurrence, Effects and Fate of Microplastic Marine Debris at the University of Washington at Tacoma concluded that microplastics are a problem in the marine environment, based on:


title: Microplastics

text: So far, research has mainly focused on larger plastic items. Widely recognized problems facing marine life are entanglement, ingestion, suffocation and general debilitation often leading to death and/or strandings. This causes serious public concern. In contrast, microplastics are not as conspicuous, being less than 5 mm, and are usually invisible to the naked eye. Particles of this size are available to a much broader range of species, enter the food chain at the bottom, become embedded in animal tissue, and are then undetectable by unaided visual inspection.


title: Microplastics

text: Furthermore, consequences of plastic degradation and pollution release over long term have mostly been overlooked. The large amounts of plastic currently in the environment, exposed to degradation, but that has many more years of decay and release of toxic compounds to follow is referred to as "toxicity debt".


title: Microplastics

text: Microplastics have been detected not just in marine but also in freshwater systems including marshes, streams, ponds, lakes, and rivers in (Europe, North America, South America, Asia and Australia). Samples collected across 29 Great Lakes tributaries from six states in the United States were found to contain plastic particles, 98% of which were microplastics ranging in size from 0.355mm to 4.75mm.


title: Microplastics

text: Microplastics can become embedded in animals' tissue through ingestion or respiration. Various annelid species, such as deposit-feeding lugworms ("Arenicola marina"), have been shown to have microplastics embedded in their gastrointestinal tracts. Many crustaceans, like the shore crab "Carcinus maenas", have been seen to integrate microplastics into both their respiratory and digestive tracts. Plastic particles are often mistaken by fish for food which can block their digestive tracts sending incorrect feeding signals to the brains of the animals. New research revealed, however, that fish ingest microplastics inadvertently rather than intentionally.


title: Microplastics

text: It can take up to 14 days for microplastics to pass through an animal (as compared to a normal digestion period of 2 days), but enmeshment of the particles in animals' gills can prevent elimination entirely. When microplastic-laden animals are consumed by predators, the microplastics are then incorporated into the bodies of higher trophic-level feeders. For example, scientists have reported plastic accumulation in the stomachs of lantern fish which are small filter feeders and are the main prey for commercial fish like tuna and swordfish. Microplastics also absorb chemical pollutants that can be transferred into the organism's tissues. Small animals are at risk of reduced food intake due to false satiation and resulting starvation or other physical harm from the microplastics.


title: Microplastics

text: A study done at the Argentinean coastline of the Rio de la Plata estuary, found the presence of microplastics in the guts of 11 species of coastal freshwater fish. These 11 species of fish represented four different feeding habits: detritivore, planktivore, omnivore and ichthyophagous. This study is one of the few so far to show the ingestion of microplastics by freshwater organisms.


title: Microplastics

text: Bottom feeders, such as benthic sea cucumbers, who are non-selective scavengers that feed on debris on the ocean floor, ingest large amounts of sediment. It has been shown that four species of sea cucumber ("Thyonella gemmate", "Holothuria floridana", "H. grisea" and "Cucumaria frondosa") ingested between 2- and 20-fold more PVC fragments and between 2- and 138-fold more nylon line fragments (as much as 517 fibers per organism) based on plastic-to-sand grain ratios from each sediment treatment. These results suggest that individuals may be selectively ingesting plastic particles. This contradicts the accepted indiscriminate feeding strategy of sea cucumbers, and may occur in all presumed non-selective feeders when presented with microplastics.


title: Microplastics

text: Bivalves, important aquatic filter feeders, have also been shown to ingest microplastics and nanoplastics. Upon exposure to microplastics, bivalve filtration ability decreases. Multiple cascading effects occur as a result, such as immunotoxicity and neurotoxicity. Decreased immune function occurs due to reduced phagocytosis and NF-κB gene activity. Impaired neurological function is a result of the inhibition of ChE and suppression of neurotransmitter regulatory enzymes. When exposed to microplastics, bivalves also experience oxidative stress, indicating an impaired ability to detoxify compounds within the body, which can ultimately damage DNA. Bivalve gametes and larvae are also impaired when exposed to microplastics. Rates of developmental arrest, and developmental malformities increase, while rates of fertilization decrease. When bivalves have been exposed to microplastics as well as other pollutants such as POPs, mercury or hydrocarbons in lab settings, toxic effects were shown to be aggravated.


title: Microplastics

text: Not only fish and free-living organisms can ingest microplastics. Scleractinian corals, which are primary reef-builders, have been shown to ingest microplastics under laboratory conditions. While the effects of ingestion on these corals has not been studied, corals can easily become stressed and bleach. Microplastics have been shown to stick to the exterior of the corals after exposure in the laboratory. The adherence to the outside of corals can potentially be harmful, because corals cannot handle sediment or any particulate matter on their exterior and slough it off by secreting mucus, expending energy in the process, increasing the likelihood of mortality.


title: Microplastics

text: Marine biologists in 2017 discovered that three-quarters of the underwater seagrass in the Turneffe Atoll off the coast of Belize had microplastic fibers, shards, and beads stuck to it. The plastic pieces had been overgrown by epibionts (organisms that naturally stick themselves to seagrass). Seagrass is part of the barrier reef ecosystem and is fed on by parrotfish, which in turn are eaten by humans. These findings, published in "Marine Pollution Bulletin," may be "the first discovery of microplastics on aquatic vascular plants... [and] only the second discovery of microplastics on marine plant life anywhere in the world."


title: Microplastics

text: It is not just aquatic animals which may be harmed. Microplastics can stunt the growth of terrestrial plants and earthworms.


title: Microplastics

text: In 2019, the first European records of microplastic items in amphibians' stomach content was reported in specimens of the common European newt "(Triturus carnifex)". This also represented the first evidence for Caudata worldwide, highlighting that the emerging issue of plastics is a threat even in remote high-altitude environments.


title: Microplastics

text: Zooplankton ingest microplastics beads (1.7–30.6 μm) and excrete fecal matter contaminated with microplastics. Along with ingestion, the microplastics stick to the appendages and exoskeleton of the zooplankton. Zooplankton, among other marine organisms, consume microplastics because they emit similar infochemicals, notably dimethyl sulfide, just as phytoplankton do. Plastics such as high-density polyethylene (HDPE), low-density polyethylene (LDPE), and polypropylene (PP) produce dimethyl sulfide odors. These types of plastics are commonly found in plastic bags, food storage containers, and bottle caps. Green and red filaments of plastics are found in the planktonic organisms and in seaweeds.


title: Microplastics

text: Not only do animals and plants ingest microplastics, some microbes also live on the surface of microplastics. This community of microbes form a slimy biofilm which, according to a 2019 study, has a unique structure and possesses a special risk, because microplastic biofilms have been proven to provide a novel habitat for colonization that increases overlap between different species, thus spreading pathogens and antibiotic resistant genes through horizontal gene transfer. Then, due to rapid movement through waterways, these pathogens can be moved very quickly from their origin to another location where a specific pathogen may not be naturally present, spreading the potential disease.


title: Microplastics

text: According to a comprehensive review of scientific evidence published by the European Union's Scientific Advice Mechanism in 2019, "little is known with respect to the human health risks of nano- and microplastics, and what is known is surrounded by considerable uncertainty". The authors of the review identify the main limitations as the quality or methodology of the research to date. Since "the poison is in the dose", the review concludes that "there is a need to understand the potential modes of toxicity for different size-shape-type NMP combinations in carefully selected human models, before robust conclusions about 'real' human risks can be made".


title: Microplastics

text: Mean/median intake of microplastics in humans are at levels considered to be safe in humans; however, some individuals may sometimes exceed these limits; the effects, if any, of this is unknown. It is unknown whether and to what degree microplastics bioaccumulate in humans. Research reported in 2022 identified, for the first time, the presence of polymers in human blood in 17 of 22 healthy volunteers. The mean of the sum quantifiable concentration of plastic particles was 1.6 mg/L. The stated purpose of the study was to develop a sampling and analytic method that could be used to detect plastics in human blood.


title: Microplastics

text: A recent sub-chronic study investigated methacrylate-based polymer beads (> 10 μm) in food for therapeutic purposes and it found no sign of polymer beads' bioaccumulation in mice organs apart from gastrointestinal tract. The microplastics ingested by fish and crustaceans can be subsequently consumed by humans as the end of the food chain. Microplastics are found in air, water, and food that humans eat, especially seafood; however, the degree of absorption and retention is unclear. However, ingestion of microplastics via food may be relatively minor; for example, while mussels are known to accumulate microplastics, humans are predicted to be exposed to more microplastics in household dust than by consuming mussels.


title: Microplastics

text: There are three main areas of potential concern with microplastics: the plastics themselves may have some effect on human physiology, microplastics might complex with heavy metals or other chemical compounds in the environment and act as a vector for bringing them into the body, and it is possible that microplastics might serve as vectors for pathogens. It is as yet unknown if exposure to microplastics at the levels found in the environment represent a "real" risk to humans; research into the subject is ongoing.


title: Microplastics

text: Plastic particles may highly concentrate and transport synthetic organic compounds (e.g. persistent organic pollutants, POPs and emerging organic contaminants), commonly present in the environment and ambient seawater, on their surface through adsorption. Microplastics can act as carriers for the transfer of POPs from the environment to organisms. Recent articles have also shown that microplastics can sorb emerging organic chemicals such as pharmaceuticals and personal care products. The sorption potential is affected by water matrix, pH, ionic strength and aging of microparticles.


title: Microplastics

text: Additives added to plastics during manufacture may leach out upon ingestion, potentially causing serious harm to the organism. Endocrine disruption by plastic additives may affect the reproductive health of humans and wildlife alike.


title: Microplastics

text: Plastics, polymers derived from mineral oils, are virtually non-biodegradable. However, renewable natural polymers are now in development which can be used for the production of biodegradable materials similar to those derived from oil-based polymers.


title: Microplastics

text: Steve Allen of Dalhousie University in Canada, main author of a study that found microplastics in high mountains, said "Plastic leaving the ocean into the air that high – it shows there is no eventual sink for this plastic. It's just moving around and around in an indefinite cycle."


title: Microplastics

text: Airborne microplastics have been detected in the atmosphere, as well as indoors and outdoors. In 2019 a study found microplastic to be atmospherically transported to remote areas on the wind. A 2017 study found indoor airborne microfiber concentrations between 1.0 and 60.0 microfibers per cubic meter (33% of which were found to be microplastics). Another study looked at microplastic in the street dust of Tehran and found 2,649 particles of microplastic within 10 samples of street dust, with ranging samples concentrations from 83 particle – 605 particles (±10) per 30.0 g of street dust. Microplastics and microfibers were also found in snow samples, and high up in "clean" air in high mountains at vast distances from their source. However, much like freshwater ecosystems and soil, more studies are needed to understand the full impact and significance of airborne microplastics.


title: Microplastics

text: Kelly et al. found 96 microplastic particles from 14 different types of polymers in an ice core sampled in 2009 from east Antarctica. Plastic pollution has previously been recorded in Antarctic surface waters and sediments as well as in Arctic sea ice, but this is thought to be the first time plastic has been found in Antarctic sea ice. Relatively large particle sizes suggest local pollution sources.


title: Microplastics

text: Microplastics have been widely detected in the world's aquatic environments. The first study on microplastics in freshwater ecosystems was published in 2011 that found an average of 37.8 fragments per square meter of Lake Huron sediment samples. Additionally, studies have found MP (microplastic) to be present in all of the Great Lakes with an average concentration of 43,000 MP particle km. Microplastics have also been detected in freshwater ecosystems outside of the United States. In Canada, a three-year study found a mean microplastic concentration of 193,420 particles km in Lake Winnipeg. None of the microplastics detected were micro-pellets or beads and most were fibers resulting from the breakdown of larger particles, synthetic textiles, or atmospheric fallout. The highest concentration of microplastic ever discovered in a studied freshwater ecosystem was recorded in the Rhine river at 4000 MP particles kg.


title: Microplastics

text: A substantial portion of microplastics are expected to end up in the world's soil, yet very little research has been conducted on microplastics in soil outside of aquatic environments. In wetland environments microplastic concentrations have been found to exhibit a negative correlation with vegetation cover and stem density. There exists some speculation that fibrous secondary microplastics from washing machines could end up in soil through the failure of water treatment plants to completely filter out all of the microplastic fibers. Furthermore, geophagous soil fauna, such as earthworms, mites, and collembolans could contribute to the amount of secondary microplastic present in soil by converting consumed plastic debris into microplastic via digestive processes. Further research, however, is needed. There is concrete data linking the use of organic waste materials to synthetic fibers being found in the soil; but most studies on plastics in soil merely report its presence and do not mention origin or quantity. Controlled studies on fiber-containing land-applied wastewater sludges (biosolids) applied to soil reported semiquantitative recoveries of the fibers a number of years after application.


title: Microplastics

text: Microplastics find their way into the food we eat, the water we drink and even the air we breathe. By some estimates, people consume more than 50,000 plastic particles per year – and many more if inhalation is considered. Microplastics were found in every human tissue studied by graduate students at Arizona State University. A study published in March, 2022, revealed that Microplastics have also been found in 80% of 22 anonymous blood samples, meaning they can be transported around the human body and raising the question of whether they can be transported to the brain. In December 2020, microplastic particles were found in the placentas of unborn babies for the first time. In June 2022, microplastic particles were found in breastmilk for the first time.


title: Microplastics

text: Plastic pollution is having the greatest impacts on the world’s poorest and most vulnerable populations. Segments of these populations predominantly work in the informal waste sector and/or live in the vicinities of open dumpsites.


title: Microplastics

text: Some researchers have proposed incinerating plastics to use as energy, which is known as energy recovery. As opposed to losing the energy from plastics into the atmosphere in landfills, this process turns some of the plastics back into energy that can be used. However, as opposed to recycling, this method does not diminish the amount of plastic material that is produced. Therefore, recycling plastics is considered a more efficient solution.


title: Microplastics

text: Biodegradation is another possible solution to large amounts of microplastic waste. In this process, microorganisms consume and decompose synthetic polymers by means of enzymes. These plastics can then be used in the form of energy and as a source of carbon once broken down. The microbes could potentially be used to treat sewage wastewater, which would decrease the amount of microplastics that pass through into the surrounding environments.


title: Microplastics

text: Stormwater or wastewater collection systems can capture many microplastics which are transported to treatment plants, the captured microplastics become part of the sludge produced by the plants. This sludge is often used as farm fertilizer meaning the plastics enter waterways through runoff.


title: Microplastics

text: Fionn Ferreira, winner of the 2019 Google Science Fair, is developing a device for the removal of microplastic particles from water using a ferrofluid.


title: Microplastics

text: Computer modelling done by The Ocean Cleanup, a Dutch foundation, has suggested that collection devices placed nearer to the coasts could remove about 31% of the microplastics in the area. On September 9, 2018, The Ocean Cleanup launched the world's first ocean cleanup system, 001 aka "Wilson", which is being deployed to the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. System 001 is 600 meters long that acts as a U-shaped skiff that uses natural oceanic currents to concentrate plastic and other debris on the ocean's surface into a confined area for extraction by vessels. The project has been met with criticism from oceanographers and plastic pollution experts, though it has seen wide public support.


title: Microplastics

text: In addition, some bacteria have adapted to eat plastic, and some bacteria species have been genetically modified to eat (certain types of) plastics.


title: Microplastics

text: Other than degrading microplastics, microbes had been engineered in a novel way to capture microplastics in their biofilm matrix from polluted samples for easier removal of such pollutants. The microplastics in the biofilms can then be released with an engineered 'release' mechanism via biofilm dispersal to facilitate with microplastics recovery.


title: Microplastics

text: Increasing education through recycling campaigns is another proposed solution for microplastic contamination. While this would be a smaller-scale solution, education has been shown to reduce littering, especially in urban environments where there are often large concentrations of plastic waste. If recycling efforts are increased, a cycle of plastic use and reuse would be created to decrease our waste output and production of new raw materials. In order to achieve this, states would need to employ stronger infrastructure and investment around recycling. Some advocate for improving recycling technology to be able to recycle smaller plastics to reduce the need for production of new plastics.


title: Microplastics

text: On April 11, 2013, in order to create awareness, Italian artist Maria Cristina Finucci founded The Garbage Patch State under the patronage of UNESCO and the Italian Ministry of the Environment.


title: Microplastics

text: The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) launched its "Trash-Free Waters" initiative in 2013 to prevent single-use plastic wastes from ending up in waterways and ultimately the ocean. EPA collaborates with the United Nations Environment Programme–Caribbean Environment Programme (UNEP-CEP) and the Peace Corps to reduce and also remove trash in the Caribbean Sea. EPA has also funded various projects in the San Francisco Bay Area including one that is aimed at reducing the use of single-use plastics such as disposable cups, spoons and straws, from three University of California campuses.


title: Microplastics

text: Additionally, there are many organizations advocating action to counter microplastics and that is spreading microplastic awareness. One such group is the Florida Microplastic Awareness Project (FMAP), a group of volunteers who search for microplastics in coastal water samples. There is also increased global advocacy aimed at achieving the target of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal 14 which hopes to prevent and significantly reduce all forms of marine pollution by 2025.


title: Microplastics

text: The Clean Oceans Initiative is a project launched in 2018 by the public institutions European Investment Bank, Agence Française de Développement and KfW Entwicklungsbank. The goal of the organisations was to provide up to €2 billion in lending, grants and technical assistance until 2023 to develop projects that remove pollution from waterways (with a focus on macroplastics and microplastics) before it reaches the oceans. The effort focuses on initiatives that demonstrate efficient methods of minimising plastic waste and microplastics output, emphasising on riverine and coastal areas.


title: Microplastics

text: In February 2022, the initiative stated that it would increase its financing aim to €4 billion by the end of 2025. At the same time, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) became the Clean Oceans Initiative's sixth member.


title: Microplastics

text: By the beginning of 2022, more than 80% of this target has been achieved, with €1.6 billion being used in long-term financing for public and private sector initiatives that minimise the discharge of plastics, microplastics, and other pollutants through enhanced solid waste, wastewater, and storm water management.


title: Microplastics

text: With increasing awareness of the detrimental effects of microplastics on the environment, groups are now advocating for the removal and ban of microplastics from various products. One such campaign is "Beat the Microbead", which focuses on removing plastics from personal care products. The Adventurers and Scientists for Conservation run the Global Microplastics Initiative, a project to collect water samples to provide scientists with better data about microplastic dispersion in the environment. UNESCO has sponsored research and global assessment programs due to the trans-boundary issue that microplastic pollution constitutes. These environmental groups will keep pressuring companies to remove plastics from their products in order to maintain healthy ecosystems.


title: Microplastics

text: China banned in 2018 the import of recyclables from other countries, forcing those other countries to re-examine their recycling schemes. The Yangtze River in China contributes 55% of all plastic waste going to the seas. Including microplastics, the Yangtze bears an average of 500,000 pieces of plastic per square kilometer. Scientific American reported that China dumps 30% of all plastics in the ocean.


title: Microplastics

text: In the US, some states have taken action to mitigate the negative environmental effects of microplastics. Illinois was the first US state to ban cosmetics containing microplastics. On the national level, the Microbead-Free Waters Act 2015 was enacted after being signed by President Barack Obama on December 28, 2015. The law bans "rinse-off" cosmetic products that perform an exfoliating function, such as toothpaste or face wash. It does not apply to other products such as household cleaners. The act took effect on July 1, 2017, with respect to manufacturing, and July 1, 2018, with respect to introduction or delivery for introduction into interstate commerce. On June 16, 2020, California adopted a definition of 'microplastics in drinking water', setting the foundation for a long-term approach to studying their contamination and human health effects.


title: Microplastics

text: On July 25, 2018, a microplastic reduction amendment was passed by the U.S. House of Representatives. The legislation, as part of the Save Our Seas Act designed to combat marine pollution, aims to support the NOAA's Marine Debris Program. In particular, the amendment is geared towards promoting NOAA's Great Lakes Land-Based Marine Debris Action Plan to increase testing, cleanup, and education around plastic pollution in the Great Lakes. President Donald Trump signed the re-authorization and amendment bill into effect on October 11, 2018.


title: Microplastics

text: On June 15, 2018, the Japanese government passed a bill with the goal of reducing microplastic production and pollution, especially in aquatic environments. Proposed by the Environment Ministry and passed unanimously by the Upper House, this is also the first bill to pass in Japan that is specifically targeted at reducing microplastic production, specifically in the personal care industry with products such as face wash and toothpaste. This law is revised from previous legislation, which focused on removing plastic marine debris. It also focuses on increasing education and public awareness surrounding recycling and plastic waste. The Environment Ministry has also proposed a number of recommendations for methods to monitor microplastic quantities in the ocean (Recommendations, 2018). However, the legislation does not specify any penalties for those who continue manufacturing products with microplastics.


title: Microplastics

text: The European Commission has noted the increased concern about the impact of microplastics on the environment. In April 2018, the European Commission's Group of Chief Scientific Advisors commissioned a comprehensive review of the scientific evidence on microplastic pollution through the EU's Scientific Advice Mechanism. The evidence review was conducted by a working group nominated by European academies and delivered in January 2019. A Scientific Opinion based on the SAPEA report was presented to the Commission in 2019, on the basis of which the commission will consider whether policy changes should be proposed at a European level to curb microplastic pollution.


title: Microplastics

text: In January 2019, the European Chemicals Agency (ECHA) proposed to restrict intentionally added microplastics.


title: Microplastics

text: The European Commission's Circular Economy Action Plan sets out mandatory requirements for the recycling and waste reduction of key products e.g. plastic packaging. The plan starts the process to restrict addition of microplastics in products. It mandates measures for capturing more microplastics at all stages of the lifecycle of a product. E.g. the plan would examine different policies which aim to reduce release of secondary microplastics from tires and textiles. The European Commission plans to update the Urban Waste Water Treatment Directive to further address microplastic waste and other pollution. They aim to protect the environment from industrial and urban waste water discharge. A revision to the EU Drinking Water Directive was provisionally approved to ensure microplastics are regularly monitored in drinking water. It would require countries must propose solutions if a problem is found.


title: Microplastics

text: The Environmental Protection (Microbeads) (England) Regulations 2017 ban the production of any rinse-off personal care products (such as exfoliants) containing microbeads. This particular law denotes specific penalties when it is not obeyed. Those who do not comply are required to pay a fine. In the event that a fine is not paid, product manufacturers may receive a stop notice, which prevents the manufacturer from continuing production until they have followed regulation preventing the use of microbeads. Criminal proceedings may occur if the stop notice is ignored.


title: Dream (character)

text: Dream of the Endless is a fictional anthropomorphic personification who first appeared in the first issue of "The Sandman", written by Neil Gaiman and published by DC Comics. One of the seven Endless, who are inconceivably powerful beings older and greater than gods, Dream is both lord and personification of all dreams and stories, all that is not in reality (which, in turn, Dream may define by his existence). He has taken many names, including Morpheus and Oneiros, and his appearance can change depending on the person who is seeing him. Dream was named the sixth-greatest comic book character by "Empire Magazine". He was also named fifteenth in IGN's 100 Top Comic Book Heroes list.


title: Dream (character)

text: Tom Sturridge portrays Dream in the television series "The Sandman" on Netflix, while Ernest Kingsley Jr. portrays him in the form of Kai'ckul.


title: Dream (character)

text: Dream is the protagonist of the comic book "The Sandman". The comic book grew out of a proposal by Neil Gaiman to revive DC's 1974–1976 series "The Sandman", written by Joe Simon and Michael Fleisher and illustrated by Jack Kirby and Ernie Chua. Gaiman soon began constructing a treatment for a new series. Gaiman mentioned his treatment in passing to DC editor Karen Berger. When months later Berger offered Gaiman a comic title to work on, he was unsure his "Sandman" pitch would be accepted. Weeks later, Berger asked Gaiman if he was interested in doing a "Sandman" series. Gaiman recalled: "I said, 'Um ... yes. Yes, definitely. What's the catch?' Berger said: 'There's only one. We'd like a new Sandman. Keep the name. But the rest is up to you'".


title: Dream (character)

text: Gaiman crafted the new character from an initial image of "a man, young, pale and naked, imprisoned in a tiny cell, waiting until his captors passed away ... deathly thin, with long dark hair, and strange eyes". Gaiman patterned the character's black attire on a print of a Japanese kimono as well as his own wardrobe.


title: Dream (character)

text: Dream usually appears as a tall, thin man with bone-white skin, black hair, and two stars in place of eyes. Most often they are silver, blue, or white, but when he becomes angered, they have been shown to turn red.


title: Dream (character)

text: Dream's appearance ranges widely: people generally perceive him in a style of dress appropriate to their region and era. In the Dreaming, he is often seen wearing a grey T-shirt and dark pants. He appears to be light-skinned when interacting with similar characters, but the people of "Tales in the Sand"'s primordial African city see him as dark. He appears as a huge black cat when speaking to the lonely cat-pilgrim of "Dream of a Thousand Cats" and as a cat-headed god when addressing the Egyptian feline goddess Bast. The Martian Manhunter sees Dream in the shape of a flaming Martian skull and identifies him as Lord L'Zoril; but Mister Miracle, looking at him simultaneously, sees him as a man. In "", he appears in the same form to all the Gods (Bast comments: "I much prefer you in cat form, Dream old friend"). In "", set in ancient Japan, Dream appears as a Japanese man to a Buddhist monk and as a fox to a fox spirit.


title: Dream (character)

text: He customarily wears a billowing black cape, sometimes with a flame motif. In battle he wears a helmet made from the skull and backbone of a defeated enemy. This "helm", which resembles a World War II-era gas mask, is also his sigil in the galleries of the other Endless, as well as appearing in the dreams (and at least once on the staircase wall) of Wesley Dodds.


title: Dream (character)

text: His face and physique are based on an amalgamation of Neil Gaiman in his twenties, The Cure's frontman Robert Smith, and ballet dancer Farukh Ruzimatov. Dream's face and appearance are also based on Bauhaus frontman Peter Murphy. In fact, Gaiman explained that Murphy was the original model for Dream. Gaiman also stated that Sandman artist Dave McKean based Dream's face in the cover of Sandman #1 on Peter Murphy.


title: Dream (character)

text: Dream's speech is usually portrayed as white text in black, wavy-edged speech bubbles bordered in white. The text is capitalized normally (sentence case), in stark contrast to other characters' speech, generally in block caps text.


title: Dream (character)

text: Although he is ultimately a heroic character, Dream is sometimes slow to understand humor, occasionally insensitive, often self-obsessed, and very slow to forgive a slight. He has a long history of failed amours, and is both shown and implied to have reacted harshly to the women therein. Both his mother, Night, and his siblings have commented that Dream has always wanted and always failed at finding a partner. As Mervyn Pumpkinhead remarks: "He's gotta be the tragic figure standing out in the rain, mournin' the loss of his beloved. So down comes the rain, right on cue. In the meantime everybody gets dreams full of existential angst and wakes up feeling like hell. And we all get wet". Near the end of the "" story arc, Desire says of Dream: "He's stuffy, stupid, and thinks he knows everything, and there's just something about him that gets on my nerves". There is a long-standing enmity between Dream and Desire, stemming from Desire's possible involvement in the failure of one of Dream's amours (seen in ""). It is implied that before his imprisonment he was crueler and more blind to his flaws, and much of "The Sandman" is focused on his desire to atone for his past behavior (e.g., helping past lovers Calliope and Nada). Dream reacts strongly to perceived insult; he banishes Nada to Hell for rejecting him and expresses outrage when Hob Gadling suggests that he seeks companionship.


title: Dream (character)

text: Dream is constantly aware of his responsibilities, both to other people and to his territory, and is detailed and exacting in their fulfillment (as noted in "Season of Mists", where he is described thus: "Of all the Endless, save perhaps Destiny, he is most conscious of his responsibilities, the most meticulous in their execution"). Conversely, he also uses his responsibilities as an excuse to avoid change and other things he does not want to do. He shares a close, reciprocal bond of dependence and trust with his elder sister, Death. He consistently strives for understanding of himself and of the other Endless, but is ultimately defeated by his inability to accept change: in "", when asked (by Matthew, the raven), "Why did it happen? Why did he let it happen?", Lucien remarks: "Charitably... I think... sometimes, perhaps, one must change or die. And in the end, there were, perhaps, limits to how much he could let himself change". However, Death suspects Dream allowed himself to become vulnerable to the Kindly Ones (by leaving his realm, when summoned by a fairy). This would imply Dream accepted change enough to knowingly and willingly allow himself to be killed and reborn as another aspect of himself - a different one. One might argue, however, that this whole "die and be replaced by the Daniel version of himself" plot was just Dream playing his own role, as he already knew some of it would happen, when he met the Daniel Dream and retrieved the Saeculum (both events happening in The Sandman Overture). Thus, the change was maybe never an option, but an imperative.


title: Dream (character)

text: Dream is noted in "Season of Mists" as "accumulating names to himself as others make friends, but he permits himself few friends". He is given more names in "The Sandman" than any of the other Endless, beyond the many translations of "Dream".


title: Dream (character)

text: Despite his narcissism and pride, Dream has a strong sense of honor. He repeatedly risks his life to make amends for a past wrong, despite not needing to do so (though, this was only after Death pointed out how horribly he had behaved) and continues on his search with Delirium despite his aversion to doing so, feeling it was unjust their human guide died without knowing anything of their quest.


title: Dream (character)

text: Dream lives in a castle at the heart of his realm, "the Dreaming". Both the castle and the rest of his realm are mutable and change often, often at his will, although his resistance to change (and difficulty changing) is a theme throughout the series. Dream maintains both the castle and the realm, as with all aspects of his appearance, in a half-accommodating, half-terrifying state, simultaneously acknowledging both the courtesy due to others and the attention due him as the realm's master, and indeed the pleasantness and terror of dreams themselves.


title: Dream (character)

text: Dream is the only one of the Endless known to populate his realm with speaking characters: a multitude of dreams and nightmares he has created, as well as entities from other realms. These include the narrators from older DC horror comics, including Cain and Abel, and Fiddler's Green, who emulates G. K. Chesterton in human form. Dream recruits or creates (or re-creates) servants to perform roles he could easily carry out himself, including the reorganization of the castle and the guarding of its entrance. Although this is not stated in the series, Gaiman has said that he "always assumed" Dream had once been alone in the Dreaming and that he populated it for want of company.


title: Dream (character)

text: Other than Dream himself, the most important inhabitant of the Dreaming is Lucien, the first of Dream's ravens and now the Librarian of the Dreaming. Dream gives Lucien authority over the Dreaming on several occasions. The character originally appeared in the 1970s DC comic "Tales of Ghost Castle", which lasted for only three issues (and was apparently killed off in "Secrets of Haunted House" #44). Lucien and Cain have a similar appearance as both were originally created by the same artist.


title: Dream (character)

text: The Dreaming is at any moment also full of all creatures dreaming at that moment, although these seldom appear in the comics panel. Several comics in DC's "Vertigo" line have been set in the Dreaming, most notably a series of the same name (chief author Alisa Kwitney).


title: Dream (character)

text: In the Audible Originals adaptation "The Sandman" written by Gaiman and Dirk Maggs, James McAvoy voices the character of Dream.


title: Dream (character)

text: In June 2019, Netflix signed a deal with Warner Bros. to produce the series and gave it an order of eleven episodes. Warner Bros. pitched the series to multiple networks—including HBO, which declined to move ahead with it due to its massive budget. Netflix got opportunity to obtain intellectual properties and attract subscribers. The series was developed by Allan Heinberg, who will executive produce alongside Gaiman and Goyer. Gaiman said he would be more involved than he was with the television adaptation of his "American Gods" (2001), but less than he was with the adaptation of "Good Omens" (1990).


title: Dream (character)

text: Tom Sturridge entered negotiations to portray Dream, after screen testing alongside Tom York and Colin Morgan, while Liam Hemsworth and Dacre Montgomery were under consideration for the role of the Corinthian. Casting news was kept tightly under wraps and was not publicly released when the first season began filming. Taron Egerton was revealed to be attached to the series in January 2021; Egerton had previously voiced John Constantine in the Audible "Sandman" adaptation.


title: Dream (character)

text: Sturridge, Gwendoline Christie, Vivienne Acheampong, Boyd Holbrook, Charles Dance, Asim Chaudhry and Sanjeev Bhaskar were announced to be starring in the series with Sturridge portraying the titular character Dream, with Ernest Kingsley Jr. portraying him in the form of Kai'ckul.


title: The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock

text: "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock", commonly known as "Prufrock", is the first professionally published poem by American-born British poet T. S. Eliot (1888–1965). Eliot began writing "Prufrock" in February 1910, and it was first published in the June 1915 issue of "Poetry: A Magazine of Verse" at the instigation of Ezra Pound (1885–1972). It was later printed as part of a twelve-poem pamphlet (or chapbook) titled "Prufrock and Other Observations" in 1917. At the time of its publication, Prufrock was considered outlandish, but is now seen as heralding a paradigmatic cultural shift from late 19th-century Romantic verse and Georgian lyrics to Modernism.


title: The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock

text: The poem's structure was heavily influenced by Eliot's extensive reading of Dante Alighieri and makes several references to the Bible and other literary works—including William Shakespeare's plays "Henry IV Part II", "Twelfth Night", and "Hamlet", the poetry of seventeenth-century metaphysical poet Andrew Marvell, and the nineteenth-century French Symbolists. Eliot narrates the experience of Prufrock using the stream of consciousness technique developed by his fellow Modernist writers. The poem, described as a "drama of literary anguish", is a dramatic interior monologue of an urban man, stricken with feelings of isolation and an incapability for decisive action that is said "to epitomize frustration and impotence of the modern individual" and "represent thwarted desires and modern disillusionment".


title: The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock

text: Prufrock laments his physical and intellectual inertia, the lost opportunities in his life and lack of spiritual progress, and is haunted by reminders of unattained carnal love. With visceral feelings of weariness, regret, embarrassment, longing, emasculation, sexual frustration, a sense of decay, and an awareness of mortality, "Prufrock" has become one of the most recognized voices in modern literature.


title: The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock

text: Eliot wrote "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock" between February 1910 and July or August 1911. Shortly after arriving in England to attend Merton College, Oxford, Eliot was introduced to American expatriate poet Ezra Pound, who instantly deemed Eliot "worth watching" and aided the start of Eliot's career. Pound served as the overseas editor of "Poetry: A Magazine of Verse" and recommended to the magazine's founder, Harriet Monroe, that "Poetry" publish "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock", extolling that Eliot and his work embodied a new and unique phenomenon among contemporary writers. Pound claimed that Eliot "has actually trained himself AND modernized himself ON HIS OWN. The rest of the "promising" young have done one or the other, but never both." The poem was first published by the magazine in its June 1915 issue.


title: The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock

text: In November 1915 "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock"—along with Eliot's poems "Portrait of a Lady", "The Boston Evening Transcript", "Hysteria", and "Miss Helen Slingsby"—was included in "Catholic Anthology 1914–1915" edited by Ezra Pound and printed by Elkin Mathews in London. In June 1917 "The Egoist", a small publishing firm run by Dora Marsden, published a pamphlet entitled "Prufrock and Other Observations" (London), containing 12 poems by Eliot. "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock" was the first in the volume. Eliot was appointed assistant editor of the "Egoist" in June 1917.


title: The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock

text: According to Eliot biographer Lyndall Gordon, when Eliot was writing the first drafts of "Prufrock" in his notebook in 1910–1911, he intentionally kept four pages blank in the middle section of the poem. According to the notebooks, now in the collection of the New York Public Library, Eliot finished the poem, which was originally published sometime in July and August 1911, when he was 22 years old. In 1912, Eliot revised the poem and included a 38-line section now called "Prufrock's Pervigilium" which was inserted on those blank pages, and intended as a middle section for the poem. However, Eliot removed this section soon after seeking the advice of his fellow Harvard acquaintance and poet Conrad Aiken. This section would not be included in the original publication of Eliot's poem but was included when published posthumously in the 1996 collection of Eliot's early, unpublished drafts in "Inventions of the March Hare: Poems 1909–1917". This "Pervigilium" section describes the "vigil" of Prufrock through an evening and night described by one reviewer as an "erotic foray into the narrow streets of a social and emotional underworld" that portray "in clammy detail Prufrock's tramping 'through certain half-deserted streets' and the context of his 'muttering retreats / Of restless nights in one-night cheap hotels.


title: The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock

text: Critical publications initially dismissed the poem. An unsigned review in "The Times Literary Supplement" from 1917 found: "The fact that these things occurred to the mind of Mr. Eliot is surely of the very smallest importance to anyone – even to himself. They certainly have no relation to 'poetry,' [...]." Another unsigned review from the same year imagined Eliot saying "I'll just put down the first thing that comes into my head, and call it 'The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock.'"


title: The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock

text: The Harvard Vocarium at Harvard College recorded Eliot's reading of "Prufrock" and other poems in 1947, as part of its ongoing series of poetry readings by its authors.


title: The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock

text: In his early drafts, Eliot gave the poem the subtitle "Prufrock among the Women." This subtitle was apparently discarded before publication. Eliot called the poem a "love song" in reference to Rudyard Kipling's poem "The Love Song of Har Dyal", first published in Kipling's collection "Plain Tales from the Hills" (1888). In 1959, Eliot addressed a meeting of the Kipling Society and discussed the influence of Kipling upon his own poetry:


title: The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock

text: Traces of Kipling appear in my own mature verse where no diligent scholarly sleuth has yet observed them, but which I am myself prepared to disclose. I once wrote a poem called "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock": I am convinced that it would never have been called "Love Song" but for a title of Kipling's that stuck obstinately in my head: "The Love Song of Har Dyal".


title: The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock

text: However, the origin of the name Prufrock is not certain, and Eliot never remarked on its origin other than to claim he was unsure of how he came upon the name. Many scholars and indeed Eliot himself have pointed towards the autobiographical elements in the character of Prufrock, and Eliot at the time of writing the poem was in the habit of rendering his name as "T. Stearns Eliot", very similar in form to that of J. Alfred Prufrock. It is suggested that the name "Prufrock" came from Eliot's youth in St. Louis, Missouri, where the Prufrock-Litton Company, a large furniture store, occupied one city block downtown at 420–422 North Fourth Street. In a 1950 letter, Eliot said: "I did not have, at the time of writing the poem, and have not yet recovered, any recollection of having acquired this name in any way, but I think that it must be assumed that I did, and that the memory has been obliterated."


title: The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock

text: He finally decided not to use this, but eventually used the quotation in the closing lines of his 1922 poem "The Waste Land". The quotation that Eliot did choose comes from Dante also. "Inferno" (XXVII, 61–66) reads:


title: The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock

text: In context, the epigraph refers to a meeting between Dante Alighieri and Guido da Montefeltro, who was condemned to the eighth circle of Hell for providing counsel to Pope Boniface VIII, who wished to use Guido's advice for a nefarious undertaking. This encounter follows Dante's meeting with Ulysses, who himself is also condemned to the circle of the Fraudulent. According to Ron Banerjee, the epigraph serves to cast ironic light on Prufrock's intent. Like Guido, Prufrock had never intended his story to be told, and so by quoting Guido, Eliot reveals his view of Prufrock's love song.


title: The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock

text: Frederick Locke contends that Prufrock himself is suffering from a split personality of sorts, and that he embodies both Guido and Dante in the "Inferno" analogy. One is the storyteller; the other the listener who later reveals the story to the world. He posits, alternatively, that the role of Guido in the analogy is indeed filled by Prufrock, but that the role of Dante is filled by the reader ("Let us go then, you and I"). In that, the reader is granted the power to do as he pleases with Prufrock's love song.


title: The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock

text: Because the poem is concerned primarily with the irregular musings of the narrator, it can be difficult to interpret. Laurence Perrine wrote, "[the poem] presents the apparently random thoughts going through a person's head within a certain time interval, in which the transitional links are psychological rather than logical". This stylistic choice makes it difficult to determine exactly what is literal and what is symbolic. On the surface, "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock" relays the thoughts of a sexually frustrated middle-aged man who wants to say something but is afraid to do so, and ultimately does not. The dispute, however, lies in to whom Prufrock is speaking, whether he is actually "going" anywhere, what he wants to say, and to what the various images refer.