Tamara Galloway

Tamara Susan Galloway OBE is a British marine scientist and Professor of Ecotoxicology at the University of Exeter. She was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire in the 2019 Birthday Honours.

Tamara Susan Galloway
OBE
Alma materUniversity of Glasgow (BS)
University of Edinburgh (PhD)
Known forMicroplastics
AwardsOrder of the British Empire (2019)
Scientific career
InstitutionsUniversity of Exeter
University of Plymouth

Early life and education

Galloway studied biochemistry at the University of Glasgow.[1] She graduated with first-class honours in 1983, and was awarded the Norman Davidson Memorial medal. Galloway moved to the University of Edinburgh for her graduate studies, and earned her PhD in 1986.[1]

Research and career

Galloway's research considers the biological impact of environmental change on human populations.[2] Since 2003, Galloway has worked with Richard Thompson at the University of Plymouth on the impact of plastics in the environment.[3] Together they worked to quantify the contamination of microplastics.[4]

She became interested in the impacts of plastics on health and moved to the University of Exeter in 2007.[3] Here she worked with the University of Exeter Medical School on Bisphenol A, which is a compound that is found in food and drink packaging.[3] She used the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES), which was the first to collect information on urinary BPA concentrations.[2] Galloway identified that Bisphenol A, which is detectable in 90% of adults, can cause increased risk of heart disease, diabetes and liver disease.[3][5] She continued to investigate Bisphenol A, demonstrating that urinary concentrations are independently associated with cardiovascular disease.[2][6][7] She conducted a study with the British Heart Foundation that involved over 1,600 patients, which confirmed that Bisphenol A accelerates the progression of heart disease by ten years.[2] Galloway's work on Bisphenol A was covered in The Naked Scientists, Chemistry World and in USA Today.[8][9][10]

Galloway is an expert in microplastics.[11] Galloway predicted that microplastics would have an impact on the marine food chain.[12] She has primarily looked at the impact of micro- and nano-plastics, finding that they can stop animals from feeding on their natural prey. Galloway demonstrated that this likely impacts the rest of the food chain, estimating that shellfish consumed by humans contained around 50 particles of plastic.[13] She found that one shower could result in 100,000 microbeads ending up in the ocean.[14] The work was used for the basis of the United Kingdom law that bans microbeads, which protects the environment from several thousand tonnes of microbeads every year. So far, she has found microplastics in every seawater sample that she has analysed.[15]

Galloway provided evidence to a cross-party committee on the environment.[13] Her research was used in the Government of the United Kingdom report A Green Future: Our 25 Year Plan to Improve the Environment.[16] Galloway worked with Zero Plastic Waste and Policy Connect to investigate how it would be possible to eliminate plastic waste from the United Kingdom.[17] She is a member of the Science Advice for Policy by European Academies group on microplastics in nature.[18] Galloway served on the advisory board of Blue Planet II.[12]

She is on the editorial board of Chemosphere.[19]

Awards and honours

Selected publications
  • Galloway, Tamara (2008). "Association of Urinary Bisphenol A Concentration With Medical Disorders and Laboratory Abnormalities in Adults". JAMA. 300 (11): 1303–10. doi:10.1001/jama.300.11.1303. PMID 18799442.
  • Galloway, Tamara (2011). "Microplastics as contaminants in the marine environment: A review" (PDF). Marine Pollution Bulletin. 62 (12): 2588–2597. doi:10.1016/j.marpolbul.2011.09.025. hdl:10871/19649. PMID 22001295.
  • Galloway, Tamara (2011). "Accumulation of Microplastic on Shorelines Woldwide: Sources and Sinks". Environmental Science & Technology. 45 (21): 9175–9179. Bibcode:2011EnST...45.9175B. doi:10.1021/es201811s. PMID 21894925.

References
  1. "Professor Tamara Galloway". University of Exeter. Retrieved 2019-06-08.
  2. "REF Case study search". impact.ref.ac.uk. Retrieved 2019-06-08.
  3. "NERC - From "trivial issue" to primetime TV". nerc.ukri.org. Retrieved 2019-06-08.
  4. "REF Case study search". impact.ref.ac.uk. Retrieved 2019-06-08.
  5. "University of Exeter". www.exeter.ac.uk. Retrieved 2019-06-08.
  6. Melzer, David; Gates, Phil; Osborn, Nicholas J.; Henley, William E.; Cipelli, Ricardo; Young, Anita; Money, Cathryn; McCormack, Paul; Schofield, Peter (2012-08-15). "Urinary Bisphenol A Concentration and Angiography-Defined Coronary Artery Stenosis". PLOS ONE. 7 (8): e43378. Bibcode:2012PLoSO...743378M. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0043378. ISSN 1932-6203. PMC 3419714. PMID 22916252.
  7. Melzer, David; Osborne, Nicholas J.; Henley, William E.; Cipelli, Riccardo; Young, Anita; Money, Cathryn; McCormack, Paul; Luben, Robert; Khaw, Kay-Tee (2012-03-27). "Urinary Bisphenol A Concentration and Risk of Future Coronary Artery Disease in Apparently Healthy Men and Women". Circulation. 125 (12): 1482–1490. doi:10.1161/circulationaha.111.069153. hdl:10871/14546. ISSN 0009-7322. PMID 22354940.
  8. "Pollution & Plastics". www.thenakedscientists.com. 2010-07-02. Retrieved 2019-06-08.
  9. "Bisphenol A: What you need to know - USATODAY.com". usatoday30.usatoday.com. Retrieved 2019-06-08.
  10. November 2012, Nina Notman20. "BPA: friend or foe?". Chemistry World. Retrieved 2019-06-08.
  11. NERCscience (2018-11-08), Uncovering the impact of microplastics in the ocean with Professor Tamara Galloway, retrieved 2019-06-08
  12. "NERC - NERC Impact Awards 2018: 4,000 tonnes of microbeads no longer released into ocean". nerc.ukri.org. Retrieved 2019-06-08.
  13. "Research impact: award winner and runners up". The Guardian. 2018-04-24. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 2019-06-08.
  14. Reporters, Telegraph (2016-08-24). "One shower releases 100,000 microbeads into the ocean, MPs warn as they call for ban". The Telegraph. ISSN 0307-1235. Retrieved 2019-06-08.
  15. Creagh, Sunanda. "Response from Tamara Galloway". The Conversation. Retrieved 2019-06-08.
  16. "University of Exeter". www.exeter.ac.uk. Retrieved 2019-06-08.
  17. "NERC - How to achieve zero plastic waste". nerc.ukri.org. Retrieved 2019-06-08.
  18. "A scientific perspective on microplastics in nature and society | SAPEA". www.sapea.info. Retrieved 2019-06-08.
  19. "Tamara Galloway". www.journals.elsevier.com. Retrieved 2019-06-08.
  20. Maps, University of Plymouth Drake Circus Plymouth Devon PL4 8AA United Kingdom +44 1752 600600; vacancies, directions Visit us Job. "Scientists earn awards for global impact of microplastics research". University of Plymouth. Retrieved 2019-06-08.
  21. Hughes, David (2019-06-08). "Queen's birthday honours list 2019 in full: here is everyone being recognised this year". inews.co.uk. Retrieved 2019-06-08.
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