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. 2020 Nov 9;8(4):100.
doi: 10.3390/toxics8040100.

A Relevant Screening of Organic Contaminants Present on Freshwater and Pre-Production Microplastics

Claudia Campanale  1 , Georg Dierkes  2 , Carmine Massarelli  1 , Giuseppe Bagnuolo  1 , Vito Felice Uricchio  1
Affiliations

A Relevant Screening of Organic Contaminants Present on Freshwater and Pre-Production Microplastics

Claudia Campanale et al. Toxics. .

Abstract

Microplastics (MPs) have recently been discovered as considerable pollutants of all environmental matrices. They can contain a blend of chemicals, some of them added during the manufacture of plastic to improve their quality (additives) and others adsorbed from the surrounding environment. In light of this, a detailed study about the identification and quantification of target organic pollutants and qualitative screening of non-target compounds present on MPs was carried out in different types of samples: environmental MPs, collected from an Italian river, and pre-production MPs, taken from the plastic industry. Polychlorobiphenyls (PCBs), organochlorine pesticides (OCPs), and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) were chosen as target compounds to be quantified by Gas Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry (GC-MS), while the non-target screening was carried out by High Resolution Gas Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry (HRGC-MS). The target analysis revealed concentrations of 16 priority Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons by Environmental Protection Agency (EPA-PAHs) in the range of 29.9-269.1 ng/g; the quantification of 31 PCBs showed values from 0.54 to 15.3 ng/g, identifying CB-138, 153, 180, 52, and 101 primarily; and the detected OCPs (p,p'-DDT and its metabolites) ranged between 14.5 and 63.7 ng/g. The non-target screening tentatively identified 246 compounds (e.g., phthalates, antioxidants, UV-stabilizers), including endocrine disruptors, toxic and reprotoxic substances, as well as chemicals subjected to risk assessment and authorisation. The large assortment of plastic chemicals associated with MPs showed their role as a presumable source of pollutants, some of which might have high bioaccumulation potential, persistence, and toxicity.

Keywords: DDT; Ofanto River; PAH; PCB; non-target screening.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that they have no known competing for financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Concentrations of 14 polychlorobiphenyl (PCB) congeners, expressed as ng/g, registered on environmental MPs (April 2017, February 2017, December 2017, May 2018) and on virgin microplastics (MPs) (virgin polyethene (PE), virgin coloured PE, virgin polypropylene (PP)). Virgin PE and PP were colourless pellets while virgin coloured PE was green microparticles (<500 µm).
Figure 2
Figure 2
Concentrations of 16 EPA-PAHs, expressed as ng/g, registered on environmental MPs (April 2017, February 2017, December 2017, May 2018) and on virgin MPs (virgin PE, virgin coloured PE, virgin PP). Virgin PE and PP were colourless pellets while Virgin coloured PE was green microparticles (<500 µm).
Figure 3
Figure 3
Principal component analysis (PCA) considering the relative higher abundance of the PAHs, grouped according to the similarity.
Figure 4
Figure 4
Concentrations of eight organochlorine pesticides (OCPs), expressed as ng/g, registered on environmental MPs (April 2017, February 2017, December 2017, May 2018), and on virgin MPs (virgin PE, virgin coloured PE, virgin PP). Virgin PE and PP were colourless pellets while virgin coloured PE was green microparticles (<500 µm).
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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