Presence and Quantification of Microplastic in Urban Tap Water: A Pre-Screening in Brasilia, Brazil

Abstract

Plastic pollution is a rapidly growing environmental and human health crisis, with no sign of improvement. From 2012 to 2020, the number of studies on plastic pollution increased, and macro to nano-sized plastics have been documented in the most remote biomes of the planet. Studies have shown contamination by microplastics (MPs) in various types of food consumed by humans, including seafood, honey, sugar, salt, tap and bottled water and beer. This study’s objective was to detect the possible contamination by MPs in drinking water samples collected from two main residential and commercial areas of Brasilia. A total of 32 samples (500 mL) of tap water were collected from residential and commercial areas. Samples were processed and transferred to a Sedgewick-Rafter counting cell chamber. The presence of MP particles was analyzed using a Nikon Eclipse fluorescence microscope. MPs were found in 100% of the samples. The mean microplastic particles per 500 mL found in the South Wing area was 97 ± 55, while the mean number of particles in the North Wing area was 219 ± 158, and the MPs found ranged in size from 6–50 microns. The study results reveal a disturbing amount of MP particles in Brasilia’s tap water. This surprising number of particles in residential and commercial tap water is especially considering that tap water is not the only source of MPs to which people are exposed.

Contribution of household dishwashing to microplastic pollution

“…These concentrations are in accordance with previous studies carried out by Kosuth et al ( 2018 ) and Almaiman et al ( 2021 ) that found an average value of 5.5 MPs/L (≥ 2.5 μm) when analysing tap water from 14 countries worldwide and 4.7 MPs/L (25–500 μm) from Saudi Arabia, respectively. However, other authors have observed higher MP concentrations, e.g., 194–438 MPs/L in Brazil (6–50 μm) (Pratesi et al 2021 ); 27–97 MPs/L (19–4200 μm) in Finland, France, Germany, Japan and USA (Mukotaka et al 2021 ) and 44–344 MPs/L (1–5000 μm) in China (Shen et al 2021 ; Tong et al 2020 ). There are also other studies that found lower values than those obtained in the present work, ranging between not detected and 1.6 MPs/L (≥ 10 μm) (Mintenig et al 2019 ; Strand et al 2018 ; Uhl and Svendsen 2018 ; Weber et al 2021 ; Zhang et al 2020 ).…”

From prey to predators: Evidence of microplastic trophic transfer in tuna and large pelagic species in the southwestern Tropical Atlantic

“…For example, microplastics have already been detected in canned tuna (Akhbarizadeh et al, 2020;Diaz-Basantes et al, 2022). The fact that the tuna is ingesting such small particles serves as an additional warning to society, which is already exposed to these particles through various pathways, such as the atmosphere, water, salt and seafood (Bruzaca et al, 2022;Karami et al, 2017;Pratesi et al, 2021;Wang et al, 2020). The degradation of microplastics into progressively smaller particles, such as nano plastics, can increase health risks due to their ability to accumulate in tissues such as the brain and cause oxidative DNA damage in the regions where they bioaccumulate (Sökmen et al, 2020).…”

Measuring the levels of plastic particulates pollution in the city of Mosul

“…Tap water samples were collected between November 2021 and February 2022, In Mosul, the GPS system (Global Positioning System) was used to determine study sites on both the left and right bank, 114 samples were taken from 250 ml glass bottles for 18 regions, where water samples were taken randomly and every two weeks (8 replicates per sampling site) (Pratesi et al, 2021). In order to determine if particle counts had changed between this period, the taps were run continuously for one minute, followed by the bottle being filled to continuous flow and thrown three consecutive times before collecting the last sample, which is a crucial step since it helps to clean and rinse the bottles before collecting samples .…”