Special: A Plastic Tide talk

For the podcast this week we have some bonus content for you while we pin down some of our Science Festival speakers for interviews. We have a recording of a talk given at one of our monthly cinema nights. Over eight million tonnes of plastic enters the ocean each year, killing sea life. Now new evidence says it's entering our food chain with unknown health effects. Dr Mark Hartl - Associate Professor of Marine Biology, Director, Centre of Marine Biodiversity & Biotechnology - discusses the implications. Microplastic contamination is now ubiquitous in the (marine) environment. Efforts to put mitigating government policy measures in place require a monitoring programme to establish baseline concentrations in order to gauge impact and effectiveness. Follow Mark on Twitter at: @M_Hartl