BabyLegs
babylegs

**BabyLegs is an aquatic trawl (net system) for monitoring microplastic pollution and biological composition of surface water. ** This tool is comprised of a floatation device attached to a set of childrens tights - hence the name BabyLegs. To collect a sample, first you dip your BabyLegs into a waterway, then drag the device along the water’s surface. The fine-knit mesh of the tights traps microscopic bits of biological materials as well as nurdles and other plastics found within the water. These samples can be processed, identified, counted, and analyzed in order to examine what’s in your waterway. ## Microplastics Of the 5.25 trillion pieces of marine plastics in the world’s oceans, 92% are microplastics less that 5mm in size (Eirksen et al 2014), allowing them to be easily ingested by marine life as small as plankton (Cole et al 2013). Scientists are concerned that because plastics absorb up to a million times more chemicals than surrounding waters (Mato et al 2001), widespread ingestion means that toxicants that accumulate in animals can magnify up food webs, causing a potential threat to human health (Rochman et al 2013, Teuten et al 2009). This makes microplastics an environmental justice issue as people who eat marine mammals or who depend upon fish for sustenance are more likely to carry high toxic burdens. (text [from civiclaboratory.nl](https://civiclaboratory.nl/2015/05/31/babylegs/)) [![Microplastics-nickel-Hudson-BBL-2015-SM.jpg](/i/25546)](/i/25546) The image above shows some of the microplastics BabyLegs captured in the Hudson River, New York City. ## Activities [notes:grid:activity:babylegs] ## Questions Q: Can I change materials on the trawl, or change the design? A: Of course! The only thing you have to make sure of is that the mouth of the trawl is always half in the water and half out. It cannot dive or skip over the water. Also beware of any materials that might put more plastic into the ocean or into the sample (plastic 3D printing, fleece, and plastic thread are particularly bad for this). Also, the design outlined here has been tested in a variety of waters. New designs might not behave as well in choppy water, at higher speeds, or in wind. Q: What sort of data does a sample from BabyLegs yield? A: Things you can know from a sample: * The types of plastics (fragments, films, beads, threads, etc) that are in a body of water. * The relative frequency of each type of plastic compared to others (perhaps you have a lot of fishing gear, but not many microbeads compared to other places) * The relative hotspots for plastics if you do sample strategically in different areas. * Whether there are more or fewer plastics after rainfall events if you trawl before and immediately after rainfalls. This can include other temporal events that you think are adding plastics to your water (storms, tourist festivals, seasons). You will not know: * Where the plastics come from. They might be local, or they might have come from far away. * How long plastics have been in the water. Some things can get tossed around in strong waves and look beat up after short periods of time, while plastics that sink can look pristine after years. * About plastics that are smaller than 1mm. You might be able to see some, but research has shown that 1mm is the smallest cut off size that human eyes can reliably identify a plastic. Q: Has BabyLegs been validated? A. Yes and no. BabyLegs has been validated in laboratory settings to ensure that water flows freely through the device and does not "choke" on water. It is also how we determined that 5 knots is the maximum speed. However, BabyLegs has not been validated against another trawl to ensure she collects samples identical to scientific standards like the manta trawl. Stay tuned-- we should have it done by the end of fall 2018. [Click here for more questions about BabyLegs.](https://publiclab.org/tag/question:babylegs) [![BabyLegs_action__rotate.png](/i/41025)](/i/41025?s=o) This image shows BabyLegs in action. You can see that part of the trawl is underwater and some is above water, allowing the trawl to capture things floating on the surface. ...


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messytyagi " Looking for Help.contact support, visit on: contact support phone number, apple contact number, apple mac support, apple iphone customer service, ..." | Read more » almost 5 years ago
messytyagi "Looking for Technical support number, visit on: contact support phone number, apple phone number, mac customer service, apple iphone support, dell ..." | Read more » almost 5 years ago
warren " Hiiii!!!!! Could be related to: https://publiclab.org/questions/warren/10-29-2018/could-the-babylegs-diy-trawl-be-used-to-collect-microplastics-in..." | Read more » almost 5 years ago
eustatic " Here https://www.rivendellvillage.org/Toolbox_For_Sustainable_City_Living.pdf " | Read more » almost 5 years ago
eustatic " Seems like it would work, except that the force of the water coming out of the machine would destroy the filter material or backflow in an undesir..." | Read more » almost 5 years ago
hikinghack "Would the amount of stuff collected by putting a nylon on my washer outweigh the amount it might contribute. I wonder how long it would last before..." | Read more » almost 5 years ago
warren "Thanks! I've made a chart where we could mark them for "good" and "bad" and add other notes; I hope it's roughly correct: But if it's not, it's ..." | Read more » almost 5 years ago
maxliboiron " We tend to reuse bottles rather than source virgin ones, since there are so many in the waste/recycling stream. For kits, I would have people find..." | Read more » almost 5 years ago
asnow " Compiling ideas we have so far here: https://www.bottlestore.com/plastic-containers/plastic-jugs.html https://www.usplastic.com/catalog/item.asp..." | Read more » about 5 years ago
bsugar "Follow up: I think the issue will be the extent to which you want it to be more durable vs. easy to cut (referring to the one where the square shap..." | Read more » about 5 years ago
bsugar "I wouldn't normally answer a question like this but I just had to see what #babylegs were and what it was that would require them. Now I'm in too ..." | Read more » about 5 years ago
maxliboiron "Hi Jeff, Yes! You can rig up a hacked BabyLegs to work at the start or end of pipes, from spitting to sinks to dryer vents to sewage outfalls. Real..." | Read more » over 5 years ago
liz "Just built one with @Bronwen ! Thanks for these great instructions! The line we sourced for the kit is "marine-environment"-rated and was resistan..." | Read more » over 5 years ago
wajahat "Very informative thank you free fb hacks " | Read more » over 5 years ago
liz "@liz awards a barnstar to maxliboiron for their awesome contribution! " | Read more » over 5 years ago
pdhixenbaugh "For example, one hour is pretty tight. If you introduced and started building the coqui one lesson, and finished building and tested water sources ..." | Read more » over 5 years ago
pdhixenbaugh "+1 for the coqui! I just adapted it for a 2h lesson with 14-17 yr olds. I think it could work well with 6 graders provided you had enough time to g..." | Read more » over 5 years ago
Bronwen "Hi @Kmckeown -- your seminars sound great! I think that the microscopes and Babylegs would be a great fit for something like this.The 3D printer an..." | Read more » over 5 years ago
xose "Fantastic Max! I need to find a moment to make my first one!! ;D " | Read more » almost 6 years ago
xose "@xose awards a barnstar to maxliboiron for their awesome contribution! " | Read more » almost 6 years ago
maxliboiron "It's actually been tested for that-- it will certainly catch bugs, but anything larger has been able to successfully avoid it (ducks, fish, eels), ..." | Read more » almost 6 years ago
SBucic "Please note to users to not leave this device unattended as there is a potential for catching wildlife. " | Read more » almost 6 years ago
maxliboiron "Yes, rivers are ideal places to study microplastics for a couple of reasons. First, you can gain baseline data about the state of the body of water..." | Read more » almost 6 years ago
warren "I do see that one photo on the Babylegs page refers to the Hudson River! " | Read more » almost 6 years ago