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Raising awareness for plastic pollution – impressions of "cleandanube" event on May 6
The first batch of samples has arrived, the analysis begins: the EDGE team led by Thorsten Hüffer and Thilo Hofmann spoke about the research behind the project “cleandanube” during an event in Vienna on May 6. There they received water samples which they will now analyse for pollutants.
Cleandanube combines swimming marathon, information campaign and research project. Andreas Fath, a German chemist, swims the Danube to draw attention to the pollution of the river with microplastics and to collect water samples along the entire course of the river. On Friday, 6 May, the project stopped in Vienna. Andreas Fath and Thorsten Hüffer, who swam along for a week, were welcomed in the morning by Leonore Gewessler, Federal Minister for Climate Action, on the banks of the Danube Canal at the Central Garden location. In a subsequent press conference, the Federal Minister presented her Microplastics Action Plan. Andreas Fath, Professor of Chemistry at Furtwangen University, reported on the challenges of the swimming tour. Together with CMESS researchers Thorsten Hüffer and Thilo Hofmann, he pointed out that not only the plastic particles themselves can be problematic as they are consumed by animals. Rather, along with the microplastics, various pollutants also end up in the river. The team of the EDGE Division will track down precisely such pollutants in their analyses.
The cleandanube project will run until mid-June. Then long-distance swimmer Fath will arrive at the mouth of the river in the Black Sea. On the way, press meetings, information events and workshops will be organised with local partners. The researchers from Vienna will stop by twice to pick up samples - in Budapest and at the Iron Gate, a breakthrough valley on the border between Serbia and Romania.
