Microplastics from effluents of sewage treatment works and stormwater discharging into the Victoria Harbor, Hong Kong

Mak, Chu Wa; Tsang, Y.Y.; Leung, Matthew Ming Lok; Fang, Jingzhong; Chan, King Ming

doi:10.1016/j.marpolbul.2020.111181

Cited by 87 publications

(29 citation statements)

References 82 publications

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“…It should be highlighted that microplastics in PCCPs are only one of the several sources of microplastics entering WWTPs (e.g., fibers from synthetic clothes washing, microbeads in cleaning products) and the overall number of particles released into the local environment is likely much higher. In Hong Kong, microplastics in treated effluents ranged from 0.6 to 10.8 particles/L (Mak et al, 2020) and considering the close proximity of Macao to Hong Kong and similar settings, this data may be used as reference. With a daily average volume of 223.299 m 3 of waste water treated per day in the several WWTPs of the territory (data for 2019, DSPA, 2019), the total number of microplastics annually released into the environment via this route in Macao may vary between 49 and 880 billions.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Still, an estimated 15 billion particles would be introduced into the studied water body per day. Likewise, WWTPs have recently been identified as a significant microplastics source in south China (Ruan et al, 2019;Mak et al, 2020). The relative contribution of microbeads in PCCPs for aquatic pollution has been estimated for mainland China by Cheung and Fok (2017), with over 209 trillion particles, weighing a total of 306.9 tons, emitted every year into the aquatic environment.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Personal Care and Cosmetic Products as a Potential Source of Environmental Contamination by Microplastics in a Densely Populated Asian City

et al. 2021

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The prevalence of microplastics in the environment has become a major global conservation issue. One primary source of environmental microplastics is personal care and cosmetic products (PCCPs) containing microbeads. The market availability of PCCPs containing microbeads and the level of contamination of coastal sediments by microplastics was studied in one of the most densely populated cities in the world, Macao in China. We found that PCCPs containing microbeads are still widely available for sale in the region, with over 70% of surveyed PCCPs containing at least one type of microbeads as an ingredient, with polyethylene (PE) being the most common one. In an estimate, the use of PCCPs in the territory may release over 37 billion microbeads per year into the environment via wastewater treatment plants. The density of microplastics in coastal sediments varied between 259 and 1,743 items/L of sediment, amongst the highest reported in the world. The fraction of < 1 mm was the most abundant, representing an average of 98.6% of the total, and correlated positively with the abundance of larger sized fragments. The results show that although environmental pollution with microplastics released from PCCPs usage is significant, other sources, namely fragmentation of larger plastic debris, likely contribute more to the issue. The study highlights the magnitude of the problem at a local level and suggests possible mitigating strategies.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Personal Care and Cosmetic Products as a Potential Source of Environmental Contamination by Microplastics in a Densely Populated Asian City

et al. 2021

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“…Mak et al investigated the physical features and numbers of microplastic in the gastrointestinal tracts and gills of the sh in the harbor area (Mak 2020). They used the nitric acid digestion method to obtain microplastics from the gastrointestinal tracts and gills of the sh.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Detection of Microplastics in Patients with Colorectal Adenocarcinoma using Various Techniques

Baygutalp

Çetin

YILDIRIM

et al. 2022

Preprint

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Whether microplastic poses a risk to the ecosystem and human health is a matter of concern. The presence of microplastics in tumoral colon tissues (TCT, n=16) and non-tumoral colon tissues (N-TCT, n=16) of the patients diagnosed with colorectal adenocarcinoma and also in the colon tissue samples (C, n=15) collected from subjects not diagnosed with colorectal cancer were determined for the first time. The microplastics were extracted from the colon tissues of TCT, N-TCT, and C groups, and ATR-FTIR and Raman spectroscopies were used for identification. The particle size of microplastic extracted from the colon tissues of TCT, N-TCT, and C groups were in the range of 1 to 1299 µm. The number of microplastics (in 1 g colon tissue) extracted from the TCT group was found to be significantly higher than those extracted from the N-TCT (P=0.001) or C groups (P =0.002). The presence of three microplastic polymers [polyethylene (PE), Poly (methyl methacrylate) (PMMA), and nylon (polyamide)] was determined in the spectra of the extracted microplastics via comparison with the spectra in KnowltAll® QC Expert software database. We might propose that there is a link between colorectal cancer and microplastic exposure level.

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“…Some of these studies were devoted to the assessment of microplastic accumulation in the sludge of the WWTPs [8]. While early studies were carried out in North America [80,[84][85][86][87][88][89][90], Europe [78,[90][91][92][93][94][95][96][97][98][99][100][101][102][103][104][105][106], and Australia [79,107], a larger number of recent studies emanate from East Asia [108][109][110][111][112][113][114][115][116][117][118][119][120][121][122][123]. It must be noted that some WWTPs were handling sewerage and storm run-off separately, others were not.…”

Section: Early Mp Retainment Studies In Wwtpsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The study focused on plastic microbeads, and here it can be said that certain WWTPs using membrane microfiltration, continuous backwash up flow dual sand (CBUDS) microfiltration or rapid sand filtration indeed did not show any plastic microbeads in the effluent at the time. Data on the retention of synthetic fibers was not released, however [120]. Two other studies came from New York State at that time, both citing release of microplastics downstream from WWTPs [84,145].…”

Section: Retention Of Mps In the Tertiary Treatment Stage Of A Wwtpmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Effect of Wastewater Treatment Methods on the Retainment of Plastic Microparticles

Habib¹,

Kindi²,

Thiemann³

2021

Promising Techniques for Wastewater Treatment and Water Quality Assessment

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Microplastics as plastic pieces of ≤5 mm in size, are found in most ecosystems, both terrestrial and aquatic. Many of the microplastics find their way into the environment through the wastewater. For this reason, a knowledge of the microplastic retainment performance of wastewater treatment plants of various design is important. In this regard, several wastewater treatment processes have been studied, including new methods that are still at the development stage. This manuscript reviews the literature on such wastewater treatment methods and their ability to retain microplastics.

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Microplastics from effluents of sewage treatment works and stormwater discharging into the Victoria Harbor, Hong Kong

Cited by 87 publications

References 82 publications

Personal Care and Cosmetic Products as a Potential Source of Environmental Contamination by Microplastics in a Densely Populated Asian City

Personal Care and Cosmetic Products as a Potential Source of Environmental Contamination by Microplastics in a Densely Populated Asian City

Detection of Microplastics in Patients with Colorectal Adenocarcinoma using Various Techniques

The Effect of Wastewater Treatment Methods on the Retainment of Plastic Microparticles

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