 A new IAA research project will study the impact of microplastics on marine life. Around 5.25 trillion plastic particles are floating in the oceans, representing a serious environmental problem. Scientists use nuclear and isotopic techniques to better understand this threat to seafood safety. Microplastics are basically small pieces of plastic, anything smaller than about five millimeters in diameter. They transfer chemical pollutants into the body or the flesh of the fish or the marine species. What we're doing at the IAEA is using nuclear and isotopic techniques to try and understand what is the fate of these small pieces of plastic and the chemicals that are bound to them, so that we can improve seafood safety issues. And we think it's a unique application that we can provide to the marine plastics science community.