her series on micro-plastics. >> sreenivasan: andrea thompson thank you for joinings us. >> definitely. >> sreenivan: we heard these stories about whales beaching up onshore with 17 pounds of plastic in their bel and we have heard about the damage that plastic does in the oceans but you are focusing on something much more interesting whichs microplastics on a very, very small scale tell us, firsof all what is microplastic and why is it dangerous? so microplastic, has a huge range of classes which is oneth g that makes them so worrisome. th are five millimeters down to, you know, maybe the size of a virus, so that is a huge, huge scale, and at a small scale means they can be ingested bay wide raping of animals from tiny plankton which are toc basis of thn food chain, to even whales, to us. they are the fragments of the plastic dendis we see arouhe bottles, bags, things like that, it gets broken down in the environment by sunlight, waves, cwind, as well as fibersoming off of our cloes, they are call microfibers and some of the n products, that are iings like toothpaste, cosmetics. >> sre

our first witness today is the honorable andrea thompson under secretary of state for arms control to international security. we had a chance to speak in the back great thank you so much for being here and share your expertise with us. i'm now old david trachtenberg undersecretary of defense for policy should the same idea. if you could summarize in about five minutes any written materials you have with the objection will be entered into the record. we thank you again and if you could just begin in new york are introduced and appreciated. >> at morning, chairman corker, ranking member menendez and established members of the committee. thank you for hosting this hearing to discuss arms control with russia. a topic central to our security and indeed the world. the 2018 nuclear posture review states progress on arms control is not an end in and of itself and depends on the security environment in participation of willing partners, end quote. the value of any arms control agreement is to arrive from treaty partners maintaining compliance with obligations and avoiding actions that resulted

move to another our first witness is andrea thompson for arms control and international security. we had a chance to speak in the back. thank you for being here. david, undersecretary of defense for policy, thank you both. if you could summarize in five minutes any written materials you have without objection, will be entered into the record. we thank you for being here. it is an important hearing. in the orderbegin introduced, i appreciate it. >> good morning distinguished members. thank you for hosting this hearing to discuss arms control. a topic center dot our security and the world. the 2018 nuclear review states progress in arms control is not in and of itself and depends on the security environment and dissipation of partners. the value of arms control agreement is arrive from our treaty partners maintaining compliance with obligations and avoiding actions that result in mistrust and the potential for miscalculation. pressure continues to violate a series of arms control obligations that undermine the trust united states complacent treaties, including some that have secured