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among the reasons for U.S. ratification of M-^iRPOL Annex V, an 

 international agreement banning plastic dumping from ships, and 

 enactment of the Marine Plastic Pollution and Control Act of 

 1987, Piiblic Law 100-220, implementing MARPOL Annex V in the U.S. 

 Plastic debris also creates problems for mariners when their 

 vessel propellers become entangled in discarded nets or line or 

 cooling water intakes become clogged with plastic bags or 

 sheeting. The threats plastics pose to recreation in and on the 

 water, however, were only fully realized after land-based sources 

 of debris -- particularly medical wastes -- washed up in massive 

 niombers on Northeast beaches during the summers of 1987 and 1988. 



According to studies following these events, the wash-ups 

 caused an estimated loss of over $1 billion to New Jersey in 1987 

 and 1988 because of decreased tourism.^ In 1988, attendance at 

 two of Long Island's most popular beaches, Jones Beach and Robert 

 Moses State Park, was down 50% costing the state parks system 

 lost revenue. As you will hear in other testimony, a Natural 

 Resources Defense Council suirvey of fifteen coastal states 

 indicated that at least 2,600 beaches were posted with warnings 

 or closed because of microbiological contamination in 1992.' 



Although medical wastes and sewage related wastes have yet to 

 be precisely identified with direct harm to humans, the presence 

 of these wastes on beaches are potential indicators of other 

 pollutants not readily apparent. Tampon applicators, condoms and 

 syringes are evidence that sewage treatment systems have been . 

 bypassed. What this says about the levels of fecal coliform and 



