Identification and Quantification of Microplastics in Potable Water and Their Sources within Water Treatment Works in England and Wales

Johnson, Andrew C.; Ball, Hollie; Cross, Richard; Horton, Alice A.; Jürgens, Monika D.; Read, Daniel S.; Vollertsen, Jes; Svendsen, Claus

doi:10.1021/acs.est.0c03211

Cited by 134 publications

(60 citation statements)

References 33 publications

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“…In total, 14 procedural blanks were prepared during this study. Similar to other opuses, the limit of detection (LOD) for each sample type was calculated from the blanks as follows [23][24][25]:…”

Section: Blank Samples and Lodmentioning

confidence: 99%

From the Well to the Bottle: Identifying Sources of Microplastics in Mineral Water

Weißer

Beer

Hufnagl

et al. 2021

Water

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Microplastics (MP) have been detected in bottled mineral water across the world. Because only few MP particles have been reported in ground water-sourced drinking water, it is suspected that MP enter the water during bottle cleaning and filling. However, until today, MP entry paths were not revealed. For the first time, this study provides findings of MP from the well to the bottle including the bottle washing process. At four mineral water bottlers, five sample types were taken along the process: raw and deferrized water samples were filtered in situ; clean bottles were sampled right after they left the bottle washer and after filling and capping. Caustic cleaning solutions were sampled from bottle washers and MP particles isolated through enzymatic and chemical treatments. The samples were analyzed for eleven synthetic and natural polymer particles ≥11 µm with Fourier-transform infrared imaging and random decision forests. MP were present in all steps of mineral water bottling, with a sharp increase from <1 MP L−1 to 317 ± 257 MP L−1 attributed to bottle capping. As 81% of MP resembled the PE-based cap sealing material, abrasion from the sealings was identified as the main entry path for MP into bottled mineral water.

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Section: Blank Samples and Lodmentioning

confidence: 99%

From the Well to the Bottle: Identifying Sources of Microplastics in Mineral Water

Weißer

Beer

Hufnagl

et al. 2021

Water

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“…Although they both refer to reducing the variations in the methodology, harmonization is less stringent and allows some variation, whereas standardization implies complete absence of variations. Standardization cannot be achieved throughout all aspects of scientific experimental protocols, but best practices for analytical procedures and quality assurance and control tools can be set as the minimum standard for designing, executing, and reporting experiments (Johnson et al 2020). The lack of such harmonized methods hinders the acquisition of reliable and reproducible data.…”

Section: Environmental Health Perspectivesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Microplastic Contamination of Seafood Intended for Human Consumption: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

Danopoulos

Jenner

Twiddy

et al. 2020

Environ Health Perspect

171

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Background: Microplastics (MPs) have contaminated all compartments of the marine environment including biota such as seafood; ingestion from such sources is one of the two major uptake routes identified for human exposure. Objectives: The objectives were to conduct a systematic review and meta-analysis of the levels of MP contamination in seafood and to subsequently estimate the annual human uptake. Methods: MEDLINE, EMBASE, and Web of Science were searched from launch (1947, 1974, and 1900, respectively) up to October 2020 for all studies reporting MP content in seafood species. Mean, standard deviations, and ranges of MPs found were collated. Studies were appraised systematically using a bespoke risk of bias (RoB) assessment tool. Results: Fifty studies were included in the systematic review and 19 in the meta-analysis. Evidence was available on four phyla: mollusks, crustaceans, fish, and echinodermata. The majority of studies identified MP contamination in seafood and reported MP content , with 26% of studies rated as having a high RoB, mainly due to analysis or reporting weaknesses. Mollusks collected off the coasts of Asia were the most heavily contaminated, coinciding with reported trends of MP contamination in the sea. According to the statistical summary, MP content was in mollusks, in crustaceans, in fish, and in echinodermata. Maximum annual human MP uptake was estimated to be close to 55,000 MP particles. Statistical, sample, and methodological heterogeneity was high. Discussion: This is the first systematic review, to our knowledge, to assess and quantify MP contamination of seafood and human uptake from its consumption, suggesting that action must be considered in order to reduce human exposure via such consumption. Further high-quality research using standardized methods is needed to cement the scientific evidence on MP contamination and human exposures. https://doi.org/10.1289/EHP7171

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“…At the end of the last digestion cycle and after filtration through a 38 μm sieve, samples were rinsed three times with ZnCl 2 instead of ultrapure water, to prevent a change in density. Samples were first poured into small beakers and then into 100 ml glass separation funnels previously rinsed three times with ZnCl 2 , kept closed with lids and left to settle for a minimum of 15 h, after which 2/3 of the solution was drained out through the valve [81]. The remaining solution was poured into a sieve stack with a 100 μm sieve on top and a 38 μm sieve below to discard the fraction larger than 100 μm.…”

Section: Density Separation and Filtrationmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…siMPle is freely available for download together with a reference database (https://simple-plastics.eu/) [84]. In this study, the AAU pipeline has been used for image analysis, and it is based on a score threshold system [78,81,82,84,87]. This software is used to compare the infrared spectra collected from the μFT-IR against the spectra of the reference database for automated analysis.…”

Section: μFt-ir Analysismentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The second and third probability thresholds, which help define the size of the particle, were left unmodified. At present, there are no guidelines in the literature as to the most appropriate thresholds [81]; therefore, we manually evaluated and compared the spectra across different polymers types by assigning different weights and score thresholds. A threshold setup of 0.60 using the first and the second derivatives of the raw spectra data yielded the best fit.…”

Section: μFt-ir Analysismentioning

confidence: 99%

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Optimising sample preparation for FTIR-based microplastic analysis in wastewater and sludge samples: multiple digestions

et al. 2021

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The lack of standardised methodologies in microplastic research has been addressed in recent years as it hampers the comparison of results across studies. The quantification of microplastics in the environment is key to the assessment of the potential eco-toxicological impacts that this new category of emerging pollutants could have on terrestrial and aquatic species. Therefore, the need for protocols that are robust, simple and reliable together with their standardisation are of crucial importance. This study has focused on removal of organic matter with Fenton reagent from wastewater and sludge samples. This step of analysis was optimised by implementing a multi-digestion treatment on these samples that have high concentration of complex mixtures of organic matter, which interfere with microplastic enumeration. Moreover, this study targeted the detection of microplastics in the sub-hundred-micron size range due to the potential higher risks associated with smaller-sized particles and the limited data available from previous wastewater research. To show the validity of the method, triplicate samples of raw sewage, final effluent and sludge were independently spiked with two different sizes and types of microplastic polymers. Due to the various analytical stages required for the isolation of microplastics, time is a limiting factor in sample processing. The sequential digestion with Fenton reagent represents an inexpensive and time-efficient procedure for wastewater research providing effective degradation of organic material. These advantages over other currently available methods mean the method is suitable for analysis of large numbers of samples allowing robust monitoring data sets to be generated.

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Identification and Quantification of Microplastics in Potable Water and Their Sources within Water Treatment Works in England and Wales

Cited by 134 publications

References 33 publications

From the Well to the Bottle: Identifying Sources of Microplastics in Mineral Water

From the Well to the Bottle: Identifying Sources of Microplastics in Mineral Water

Microplastic Contamination of Seafood Intended for Human Consumption: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

Optimising sample preparation for FTIR-based microplastic analysis in wastewater and sludge samples: multiple digestions

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