Distribution and quantity of microplastic on sandy beaches along the northern coast of Taiwan

Kunz, Alexander; Walther, Bruno; Löwemark, Ludvig; Lee, Yao-Chang

doi:10.1016/j.marpolbul.2016.07.022

Cited by 131 publications

(53 citation statements)

References 41 publications

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“…Freshwater sediment samples came mainly from lakes (66%). Highest concentrations were reported in the Taiwan Strait (42 560 items/m 3 ; Kunz et al ).…”

Section: Sources and Occurrence Of Microplastics In The Environmentmentioning

confidence: 97%

Microplastics in the aquatic environment: Evidence for or against adverse impacts and major knowledge gaps

Burns

Boxall

2018

Enviro Toxic and Chemistry

492

324

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There is increasing scientific and public concern over the presence of microplastics in the natural environment. We present the results of a systematic review of the literature to assess the weight of evidence for microplastics causing environmental harm. We conclude that microplastics do occur in surface water and sediments. Fragments and fibers predominate, with beads making up only a small proportion of the detected microplastic types. Concentrations detected are orders of magnitude lower than those reported to affect endpoints such as biochemistry, feeding, reproduction, growth, tissue inflammation and mortality in organisms. The evidence for microplastics acting as a vector for hydrophobic organic compounds to accumulate in organisms is also weak. The available data therefore suggest that these materials are not causing harm to the environment. There is, however, a mismatch between the particle types, size ranges, and concentrations of microplastics used in laboratory tests and those measured in the environment. Select environmental compartments have also received limited attention. There is an urgent need for studies that address this mismatch by performing high quality and more holistic monitoring studies alongside more environmentally realistic effects studies. Only then will we be able to fully characterize risks of microplastics to the environment to support the introduction of regulatory controls that can make a real positive difference to environmental quality. Environ Toxicol Chem 2018;37:2776–2796. © 2018 SETAC

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“…Freshwater sediment samples came mainly from lakes (66%). Highest concentrations were reported in the Taiwan Strait (42 560 items/m 3 ; Kunz et al ).…”

Section: Sources and Occurrence Of Microplastics In The Environmentmentioning

confidence: 97%

Microplastics in the aquatic environment: Evidence for or against adverse impacts and major knowledge gaps

Burns

Boxall

2018

Enviro Toxic and Chemistry

492

324

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

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“…Plastic pollution is a growing environmental problem in terrestrial habitats 1,2 but even more so in coastal, riverine, and oceanic habitats 3–10 including Taiwan 11–13 . Meanwhile, global plastic production and waste generation have been growing exponentially and reached about 335 million tons in 2016 14–16 .…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Once in the environment, plastic objects and fragments (1) visually and structurally damage coastal, oceanic, and riverine environments, with negative effects on tourism, (2) spread invasive species, (3) damage and endanger ships, (4) cause injury and death of animals through ingestion and entanglement, and (5) eventually degrade to meso-, micro-, and nanoplastic particles which can enter the food chain directly or contaminate it via the leaching of their chemical and often toxic ingredients 2,9,18–33 . Meso-, micro-, and nanoplastic particles are generally defined to be the following size categories, respectively: <25 mm–5 mm, 5 mm–1 μm, and <1 μm 11 .…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Microplastic contamination of table salts from Taiwan, including a global review

Lee¹,

Kunz

Shim

et al. 2019

Sci Rep

Self Cite

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Plastic pollution is a rapidly worsening environmental problem, especially in oceanic habitats. Environmental pollution with microplastic particles is also causing food consumed by humans to be increasingly polluted, including table salts. Therefore, we present the first study which focuses only on table salt products purchased in Taiwan which we examined for the presence of microplastics. We used Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy to identify the polymer type of each particle. Within 4.4 kg of salt, we detected 43 microplastic particles which averages to 9.77 microplastic particles/kg. The identified polymer types were, in descending abundance, polypropylene, polyethylene, polystyrene, polyester, polyetherimide, polyethylene terephthalate, and polyoxymethylene. We combined our novel results with those of previous studies to provide the first global review of microplastic contamination of table salts. We found that 94% of salt products tested worldwide contained microplastics, with 3 out of 27 polymer types (polyethylene terephthalate, polypropylene, polyethylene) accounting for the majority of all particles. Averaging over seven separate studies, table salts contain a mean of 140.2 microplastic particles/kg. With a mean annual salt consumption of ~3.75 kg/year, humans therefore annually ingest several hundred microplastic particles from salt alone.

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“…The surrounding conditions of many beaches can lead to extensive changes in the composition of plastic debris. The higher number of beach plastic mainly comes from the presence of shops and hotels [43,44]. In monsoonal months, the usage of the beach is less due to the rainfall.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Characterization of petroleum-based plastics and their absorbed trace metals from the sediments of the Marina Beach in Chennai, India

Suman

Alif

et al. 2020

Environ Sci Eur

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Background: Pollution by marine plastic debris becomes an increasing global concern. Characteristics of petroleumbased plastics pollution and its absorbed metals in Marina Beach, Chennai, in India are not reported yet. In this study, we first characterized the petroleum-based plastic debris and quantified the concentration of arsenic (As), chromium (Cr), copper (Cu), and lead (Pb) in plastics from the Marina Beach. Results: A total of 2275 samples of the sediments were collected from three different locations across the Marina Beach. Our results showed that plastics debris mainly were three shapes as fiber, sphere, and fragment. The plastic fragments were mechanically eroded and chemically weathered observed by the scanning electron microscope (SEM). Five types of polymers were identified, including low-density polyethylene (LDPE), polyethylene terephthalate (PET), polypropylene (PP), polyamide (PA), and polycarbonate (PC). Their absorbed trace metals, such as Cr, As, Pb, and Cu, were determined by the inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS). The level of As was high in most plastics. However, the highest levels of Pb, Cu, and Cr were in the PA, PP, and PA, respectively, implying the adsorption preference of plastics from different sources. Conclusion: Taken together, this study first characterized petroleum-based plastics and their absorbed trace metals in the sediments of the Marina Beach, indicating that petroleum-based plastics acted as the vectors for the transportation of metal elements in the marine biome.

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Distribution and quantity of microplastic on sandy beaches along the northern coast of Taiwan

Cited by 131 publications

References 41 publications

Microplastics in the aquatic environment: Evidence for or against adverse impacts and major knowledge gaps

Microplastics in the aquatic environment: Evidence for or against adverse impacts and major knowledge gaps

Microplastic contamination of table salts from Taiwan, including a global review

Characterization of petroleum-based plastics and their absorbed trace metals from the sediments of the Marina Beach in Chennai, India

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