Comment submitted by Jennifer Brandon
AnonymousSupportAcademic
Summary: Dr. Jennifer Brandon, a biological oceanographer at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography, supports the inclusion of microplastics on the Drinking Water Contaminant Candidate List. She argues that federal action is necessary to provide the funding and regulatory framework needed to monitor, research, and mitigate microplastic pollution in drinking water.
My name is Dr. Jennifer Brandon. I am a PhD Biological Oceanographer from Scripps Institution of Oceanography, UC San Diego, where I studied microplastics and their effects on the ocean ecosystem, as well as quantified new ways to measure the smallest microplastics in the environment. Microplastics have been found in practically every system that scientists have looked for them - our oceans, rivers, lakes, atmosphere, soil, wind, and our food and drinking water. Because we are finding them in our food and drinking water, we are also finding them in multiple parts of the human body. But most of this work is data-limited, with just a few studies done and a few samples taken, and we need more data and more funding to truly know the full extent of microplastics' effects on our water system and our human health system. Thank you so much for including microplastics as a draft chemical group on CCL 6. This is overdue, and essential, in order to continue researching microplastics in drinking water, but also in order to begin monitoring, regulating, and mitigating microplastics in drinking water. I live in California and California has taken the lead on monitoring drinking water for microplastics, with a few other states and municipalities following suit. But we need federal legislation and funding in order to stop this pollution at the source, and starting with adding microplastics to the CCL 6 is a huge step in the right direction. I am writing as a scientist with 13 years experience of studying microplastics to encourage you to include microplastics on the final CCL 6, and to continue monitoring this important pollutant. Thank you for including microplastics, and many of their associated chemicals such as PFAS and BPA, on CCL 6, and I hope they all make it on to the finalized list.