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Long Term Exposure to Virgin and Recycled LDPE Microplastics Induced Minor Effects in the Freshwater and Terrestrial Crustaceans Daphnia magna and Porcellio scaber.

ABSTRACT: The effects of microplastics (MP) are extensively studied, yet hazard data from long-term exposure studies are scarce. Moreover, for sustainable circular use in the future, knowledge on the biological impact of recycled plastics is essential. The aim of this study was to provide long-term toxicity data of virgin vs recycled (mechanical recycling) low density polyethylene (LDPE) for two commonly used ecotoxicity models, the freshwater crustacean Daphnia magna and the terrestrial crustacean Porcellio scaber. LDPE MP was tested as fragments of 39.8 ± 8.82 µm (virgin) and 205 ± 144 µm (recycled) at chronic exposure levels of 1-100 mg LDPE/L (D. magna) and 0.2-15 g LDPE/kg soil (P. scaber). Mortality, reproduction, body length, total lipid content, feeding and immune response were evaluated. With the exception of very low inconsistent offspring mortality at 10 mg/L and 100 mg/L of recycled LDPE, no MP exposure-related adverse effects were recorded for D. magna. For P. scaber, increased feeding on non-contaminated leaves was observed for virgin LDPE at 5 g/kg and 15 g/kg. In addition, both LDPE induced a slight immune response at 5 g/kg and 15 g/kg with more parameters altered for virgin LDPE. Our results indicated different sublethal responses upon exposure to recycled compared to virgin LDPE MP.

SUBMITTER: Jemec Kokalj A

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7958955 | biostudies-literature |

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Project description:The COVID-19 pandemic has increased the use of disposable plastics, including medical masks, which have become a necessity in our daily lives. As these are often improperly disposed of, they represent an important potential source of microplastics in the environment. We prepared microplastics from polypropylene medical masks and characterised their size, shape, organic chemical leaching, and acute toxicity to the planktonic crustacean Daphnia magna. The three layers of the masks were separately milled and characterised. Each of the inner frontal, middle filtering, and outer layers yielded different types of microplastics: fibres were obtained from the inner and outer layer, but irregular fragments from the middle layer. The shape of the obtained microplastics differed from the initial fibrous structure of the intact medical mask layers, which indicates that the material is deformed during cryo-milling. The chemical compositions of plastics-associated chemicals also varied between the different layers. Typically, the inner layer contained more chemicals related to antimicrobial function and flavouring. The other two layers also contained antioxidants and their degradation products, plasticisers, cross-linking agents, antistatic agents, lubricants, and non-ionic surfactants. An acute study with D. magna showed that these microplastics do not cause immobility but do physically interact with the daphnids. Further long-term studies with these microplastics are needed using a suite of test organisms. Indeed, studies with other polypropylene microplastics have shown numerous adverse effects on other organisms at concentrations that have already been reported in the environment. Further efforts should be made to investigate the environmental hazards of polypropylene microplastics from medical masks and how to handle this new source of environmental burden.Please check the si word document the authors are not listed there i cannot edit that file please add the authors supplementary informationThe online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s43591-021-00020-0.

Dataset Information

Long Term Exposure to Virgin and Recycled LDPE Microplastics Induced Minor Effects in the Freshwater and Terrestrial Crustaceans Daphnia magna and Porcellio scaber.

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