Cynthia Norman: Fleece microfibers a danger

Editor’s note: This commentary is by Cynthia Norman, of Burlington, who works for the Lake Champlain Basin Program and is a member of The Nature Conservancy.
Plastic particles in Lake Champlain just got much more alarming. Polyester fleece sheds minute bits of fiber in the washing machine and a recent study found these microfibers in tap water from 90 percent of U.S. cities tested.
Each time a fleece garment is washed thousands of invisibly tiny fragments of polyester are shed into the wat