Nanoplastics in the Aquatic Environment. Critical Review

Abstract

A growing body of literature reports on the abundance and effects of plastic debris, with an increasing focus on microplastic particles smaller than 5 mm. It has often been suggested that plastic particles in the <100 nm size range as defined earlier for nanomaterials (here referred to as 'nanoplastics'), may be emitted to or formed in the aquatic environment. Nanoplastics is probably the least known area of marine litter but potentially also the most hazardous. This paper provides the first review on sources, effects and hazards of nanoplastics. Detection methods are in an early stage of development and to date no nanoplastics have actually been detected in natural aquatic systems. Various sources of nanoplastics have been suggested such as release from products or nanofragmentation of larger particles. Nanoplastic fate studies for rivers show an important role for sedimentation of heteroaggregates, similar to that for non-polymer nanomaterials. Some prognostic effect studies have been performed but effect thresholds seem higher than nanoplastic concentrations expected in the environment. The high surface area of nanoplastics may imply that toxic chemicals are retained by nanoplastics, possibly increasing overall hazard. Release of non-polymer nanomaterial additives from small product fragments may add to the hazard of nanoplastics. Because

Micro- and Nanoplastic Pollution of Freshwater and Wastewater Treatment Systems

“…Nevertheless, because a lower cut-off has not been established, the term microplastic has often been used to encompass pieces ranging from millimetre to nanometre dimensions. More recently, the term ''nanoplastic'' has been introduced as a separate category [7,56,94]. This size class has been defined as particles smaller than 0.2 mm based on the WG-GES size classification [94], and, smaller than 100 nm according to the general definition used for nanomaterials [56].…”

“…More recently, the term ''nanoplastic'' has been introduced as a separate category [7,56,94]. This size class has been defined as particles smaller than 0.2 mm based on the WG-GES size classification [94], and, smaller than 100 nm according to the general definition used for nanomaterials [56]. Mostly, nanoplastics have been overlooked in the literature and are the least-studied size class, as evidenced by a lack of discussion of its definition and quantification.…”

“…Mostly, nanoplastics have been overlooked in the literature and are the least-studied size class, as evidenced by a lack of discussion of its definition and quantification. Nevertheless, it has been suggested that these nanoscopic plastics may be the most hazardous yet due to their high potential for bioaccumulation and biomagnification [56,76], thus requiring further investigation. For purposes of this review, for ease of reference the rest of the discussion will focus on micro-and nanoplastics (MNP) jointly as one single size class.…”

Fulmar Litter EcoQO monitoring in the Netherlands : update 2016

“…Concerns have also been expressed for the even smaller particles, those in the nano-size range, which might penetrate into tissues and cells with potential chemical and mechanical damage to e.g. DNA (Koelmans et al 2015;Booth et al 2016;Gigault et al 2016;Liu et al 2016;Jahnke et al 2017). Accumulation of marine plastic litter, including a 'soup' of microplastics, in all major gyres of the oceans (Moore 2008;Law et al 2010;Maximenko et al 2012;Van Sebille et al 2012, 2015 and in deep-sea sediments and polar sea-ice (e.g.…”

Aquatic Ecotoxicity of Microplastics and Nanoplastics: Lessons Learned from Engineered Nanomaterials

“…microplastics) although submicron-sized plastic particles (i.e. nanoplastics) are also expected to be formed in the environment through continuous fragmentation of larger plastic particles [1,2]. Microplastics are commonly defined as plastic particles smaller than 5 mm [3], whereas no common definition for nanoplastics has yet been established.…”