Chemical Characterization of Recycled Consumer Products Using Suspect Screening Analysis

Lowe, Charles; Phillips, Katherine A.; Favela, Kristin; Yau, Alice; Wambaugh, John F.; Sobus, Jon R.; Williams, Antony J.; Pfirrman, Ashley J; Isaacs, Kristin

doi:10.1021/acs.est.1c01907

Cited by 37 publications

(42 citation statements)

References 57 publications

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“…Accordingly, the production processes must be monitored. For recycled materials, concerning chemicals in circularity have been demonstrated in this thesis, which is supported by other reports (Leslie et al, 2016;Lowe et al, 2021). Regulatory actions should thus be prepared for such materials, so that material and chemical streams are 'clean' (Aurisano et al, 2021b).…”

Section: Regulatory Interventions Along the Plastic Value Chainsupporting

confidence: 81%

“…In the study A4, the SB foil even released 2,984 compounds after a similar treatment. Along that line, many other studies report that plastics include and release hundreds to thousands of chemicals Li et al, 2021;Lowe et al, 2021;Tisler and Christensen, 2022;Völker et al, 2021;. It should be emphasized that the different methods used to extract these plastic chemicals and the instrumental differences impair a proper comparison.…”

Section: Chemically Complex Formulationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Such a study could identify the pellets evincing chemically pure and toxicologically safe traits and expand on the methods used to produce such materials. At the moment, potentially harmful substances such as polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, phthalates, brominated flame retardants and volatile organic compounds have been found by Lowe et al (2021) in recycled consumer products. They surveyed virgin and recycled consumer products and detected 918 and 587 chemicals, respectively.…”

Section: Categories To Profile the Toxicitiesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…However, none of the chemically very complex plastics triggered no toxicities at all (A1). Also, it was not surprising that the recycled materials released high counts because of the many constituents usually going into reprocessing (Gerassimidou et al, 2022), yet this does not apply for every recyclate (Lowe et al, 2021). The same is true for biodegradable materials.…”

Section: Chemically Complex Formulationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Thus, these are known to be plastic-related (Wypych, 2015). As for the benzoic acids, they are used as preservatives or plasticizer precursors (Lowe et al, 2021) and were released after weathering (Sørensen et al, 2020). Sait et al (2021) conducted a similar experiment as Sørensen et al (2020) and detected three benzophenones.…”

Section: Functionality Of Identified Plastic Chemicalsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Ecotoxicological assessment of microplastics in limnic systems with emphasis on chemicals released by weathering

Klein¹

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Plastic pollution is a pervasive problem. In the environment, both the physical and chemical aspects of the material contribute to pollution. For instance, discarded plastic is useless waste that is fragmented upon degradation and so-called microplastics <5 mm are formed. Besides, the chemicals added into plastics are usually customized for specific functions, but these can easily transfer from the polymer into an ambient medium. This work examined both of these aspects. Moreover, the question of whether ecotoxicological effects are more likely to appear because of the microparticle properties or the chemicals transferring from the microplastics was addressed. A special focus was laid on the UV-weathering-induced chemical release. First, conventional and biodegradable plastics made from fossil and bio-based resources were chosen. The different materials (pre-production and recycled pellets as well as final products)were weathered and their leachates evaluated in vitro. The leachates were analyzed with nontarget screening in order to measure the number of transferred chemicals. Plastics identified as toxic were subjected to further investigations in vivo. A biodegradable shampoo bottle was processed to microplastics and the particles’ physical and chemical properties were assessed with the freshwater worm Lumbriculus variegatus. Here, commonly used endpoints such as mortality, reproduction and weight were tested via different exposure routes. Moreover, the freshwater shrimp Neocaridina palmata was exposed to microplastic beads and fragments to clarify if the shape of the particles affects the ingestion and egestion, respectively. Thereafter, two materials that displayed the strongest toxic responses in vitro within the first study were weathered and leached. Finally, the shrimps were exposed to the leachates and the locomotor behavior was used as an ecologically relevant but less frequently studied endpoint. The results of the studies highlight that plastics are chemically complex mixtures, containing a wide range of chemicals in terms of the number and functionality. These chemicals induced oxidative stress, baseline toxicity and endocrine activities. This shows that pellets represent a processing state that comprises chemically heterogenous materials. Moreover, it was shown that a degradation initiator is not necessarily relevant to trigger inherent substances to leach out from plastics. Despite this, the UV-weathering resulted in increasingly released chemicals and exacerbated the in vitro toxicities. Even plastics assessed as toxicologically harmless prior to weathering released toxic chemical mixtures once they were weathered. One recycled and all of the biodegradable plastics were toxicologically most concerning. This means that such materials are currently not better than conventional, virgin plastics in terms of their toxicity. To clarify the source of the microplastic toxicity, L. variegatus was exposed to biodegradable microplastics. The particles were ingested by the worms and adversely affected the examined endpoints. In comparison, microplastics that were depleted from their chemicals via a solvent treatment were less toxic. Kaolin as a natural particle control was evaluated alongside and positively affected the weight of the worms. This emphasizes the ecological relevance of fine-sized matter for the test species. The chemicals extracted from the microplastics induced a 100% mortality. A chemical analysis of the material revealed two ecotoxicologically relevant biocides. The physically-mediated effects of the microplastics seemed to be less of a concern for the worms, which is probably linked to their adaptation to high concentrations of naturally occurring particles in the environment. However, the effects related to the chemicals of plastic cannot be ignored, especially for materials that are claimed to be environmentally friendly. In the third study, the role of the particle shape in the gut passaging of N. palmata was studied. While the particle size was a determinant factor for the ingestion, the ingestion and egestion of the beads and fragments did not differ, respectively. The shrimps ingested less fragments when food was provided than in the absence of food. As for the worms, the shrimps are known to ingest many naturally occurring particles. Their unselective feeding behavior towards the particle shape could indicate that microplastics as a physical pollutant are negligible for the shrimps. That is why the chemicals of the two most toxic in vitro materials were tested with N. palmata. However, no trend towards elevated or reduced movements of the shrimps was observed, even though the leachates contained baseline toxicants. This shows that the in vitro toxicities of plastics are not necessarily indicative for effects to occur at the in vivo level...

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Section: Regulatory Interventions Along the Plastic Value Chainsupporting

confidence: 81%

Section: Chemically Complex Formulationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Categories To Profile the Toxicitiesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Chemically Complex Formulationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Functionality Of Identified Plastic Chemicalsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Ecotoxicological assessment of microplastics in limnic systems with emphasis on chemicals released by weathering

Klein¹

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Modernizing persistence–bioaccumulation–toxicity (PBT) assessment with high throughput animal-free methods

et al. 2023

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The assessment of persistence (P), bioaccumulation (B), and toxicity (T) of a chemical is a crucial first step at ensuring chemical safety and is a cornerstone of the European Union’s chemicals regulation REACH (Registration, Evaluation, Authorization, and Restriction of Chemicals). Existing methods for PBT assessment are overly complex and cumbersome, have produced incorrect conclusions, and rely heavily on animal-intensive testing. We explore how new-approach methodologies (NAMs) can overcome the limitations of current PBT assessment. We propose two innovative hazard indicators, termed cumulative toxicity equivalents (CTE) and persistent toxicity equivalents (PTE). Together they are intended to replace existing PBT indicators and can also accommodate the emerging concept of PMT (where M stands for mobility). The proposed “toxicity equivalents” can be measured with high throughput in vitro bioassays. CTE refers to the toxic effects measured directly in any given sample, including single chemicals, substitution products, or mixtures. PTE is the equivalent measure of cumulative toxicity equivalents measured after simulated environmental degradation of the sample. With an appropriate panel of animal-free or alternative in vitro bioassays, CTE and PTE comprise key environmental and human health hazard indicators. CTE and PTE do not require analytical identification of transformation products and mixture components but instead prompt two key questions: is the chemical or mixture toxic, and is this toxicity persistent or can it be attenuated by environmental degradation? Taken together, the proposed hazard indicators CTE and PTE have the potential to integrate P, B/M and T assessment into one high-throughput experimental workflow that sidesteps the need for analytical measurements and will support the Chemicals Strategy for Sustainability of the European Union.

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Uncertainty estimation strategies for quantitative non-targeted analysis

et al. 2022

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Chemical Characterization of Recycled Consumer Products Using Suspect Screening Analysis

Cited by 37 publications

References 57 publications

Ecotoxicological assessment of microplastics in limnic systems with emphasis on chemicals released by weathering

Ecotoxicological assessment of microplastics in limnic systems with emphasis on chemicals released by weathering

Modernizing persistence–bioaccumulation–toxicity (PBT) assessment with high throughput animal-free methods

Uncertainty estimation strategies for quantitative non-targeted analysis

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