Plasticisers and Their Impact on Wildlife

Abstract

In this chapter we discuss the current understanding on chemical exposures and effects in wildlife for phthalates, the most widely used plasticisers, and two other major components of plastics, bisphenol A (BPA) – a plastic monomer and polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs) – incorporated as flame retardants. Ecotoxicity studies have shown that phthalates (and BPA) are generally not acutely toxic to wildlife at environmentally relevant exposures (in the low µg l−1 range), but chronic effects, including disruption of hormone systems and reproduction, have been reported in almost all animal groups studied. Although phthalates (and BPA) do not readily bioaccumulate and undergo rapid biodegradation, their continual release into the environment makes them pseudo-persistent. In contrast with phthalates and BPA, PBDEs are highly bioaccummulative, and developmental exposures to some PBDEs cause liver and kidney toxicity, immunotoxicity, neurotoxicity and endocrine disruption for environmentally relevant exposures in various wildlife phyla. Many of the effects of PBDEs in vertebrates occur due to disruptions to the thyroid hormone system. Concern relating to both human and wildlife exposure and (eco)toxicological effects has recently led to various regulations restricting the use of certain phthalates, bisphenols and PBDEs in plastics.

Cross-Generational Impacts of Diet Shift on Bisphenol Analogue Loads in Indo-Pacific Humpback Dolphins (Sousa chinensis)

“…Current BPA analogue exposure levels are likely within the metabolic capacity of humpback dolphins, and thus no significant variations in their residue levels have been observed in recent years. Different from the analogues, BPA was considered as a "pseudopersistent" pollutant since BPA has been continuously loaded into the marine environment, 50 resulting in the fact that dolphin's BPA exposure levels might be over the metabolic capacity of humpback dolphins. No significant inter-annual increases in BPA analogues were shown, but the extreme values of BPS (48.4 ng g −1 dw) and BPP (48.4 ng g −1 dw) occurred in 2017, which were half of that of BPA (96.3 ng g −1 dw), indicating these residue levels might cause health concerns on humpback dolphins.…”

Micro(nano)plastics and plastic additives effects in marine annelids: A literature review

“…Among additives, functional additives such as flame retardants, biocides, stabilizers and plasticizers are considered as more relevant in this review on polychaete studies. Since most of these additives may be present at high concentrations in plastic products, and are not covalently bound to the polymers, during plastic deterioration they can be easily released into the environment (Gunaalan et al, 2020;Tyler et al, 2019). Several recent reviews on plastic additives, which also included marine species, have addressed the environmental problem of the toxicity induced by these compunds, usually associated to plastic products (Avio et al, 2017;Gunaalan et al, 2020;Hermabessiere et al, 2017;Tyler et al, 2019).…”

Effect of di(n‐butyl) phthalate on the blood–testis barrier during puberty onset

“…Although studies on the reproductive toxicological effects resulting from exposure to DBP have been conducted in the male Japanese quail (Bello et al, 2014(Bello et al, , 2019Ibrahim et al, 2021), there are no detailed reports on the effects of environmentally relevant concentrations of DBP on the Sertoli cell and junctional complexes of the BTB in the species. According to Tyler et al (2018), environmentally relevant concentrations of DBP are those in the low μg/L range, while Liu and Craig (2019) classified environmentally relevant levels of DBP as those between 10 and 100 μg/kg/day.…”