Characterisation, quantity and sorptive properties of microplastics extracted from cosmetics.

By I. Napper, A. Bakir, S. Rowland, Richard C. Thompson. Marine Pollution Bulletin, 2015

823 citations recorded by the source corpus.

Cosmetic products, such as facial scrubs, have been identified as potentially important primary sources of microplastics to the marine environment. This study characterises, quantifies and then investigates the sorptive properties of plastic microbeads that are used as exfoliants in cosmetics. Polyethylene microbeads were extracted from several products, and shown to have a wide size range (mean diameters between 164 and 327 μm). We estimated that between 4594 and 94,500 microbeads could be released in a single use. To examine the potential for microbeads to accumulate and transport chemicals they were exposed to a binary mixture of (3)H-phenanthrene and (14)C-DDT in seawater. The potential for transport of sorbed chemicals by microbeads was broadly similar to that of polythene (PE) particles used in previous sorption studies. In conclusion, cosmetic exfoliants are a potentially important, yet preventable source of microplastic contamination in the marine environment.

Subfields: Health, Toxicology and Mutagenesis, Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering, Pollution

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/05b94edb9643c66439a79e6556d39a25644e49b1

How researchers see this paper

The researchers whose trusted networks rank it highest, strongest advocate first. Every researcher gets a different order.

In Health, Toxicology and Mutagenesis

1. A. Lusher
2. A. Koelmans
3. I. Napper
4. S. Mason
5. P. Hollman
6. Jeremy Mendoza-Hill
7. I. Paul-Pont
8. C. Svendsen

In Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering

1. A. Lusher
2. A. Koelmans
3. Huahong Shi
4. P. Hollman
5. L. Su
6. Dongqi Yang
7. Jeremy Mendoza-Hill
8. Daoji Li

In Pollution

1. A. Lusher
2. A. Koelmans
3. P. Hollman
4. Jeremy Mendoza-Hill
5. Huahong Shi
6. L. Su
7. Dongqi Yang
8. Daoji Li

Citations in the corpus

• Finding the missing piece of the aquatic plastic pollution puzzle: Interaction between primary producers and microplastics (2017, background): “Studies related to microbial biofilms on plastic debris in water, including microplastics, are being published at an increasing frequency in recent years (Muthukumar et al. 2011; Carson et al. 2013; Zettler et al. 2013; Harrison et al. 2014; McCormick et al. 2014; Oberbeckmann et al. 2015).”
• Occurrence and effects of plastic additives on marine environments and organisms: A review. (2017, background): “…size, including plastic pellets (Barnes et al., 2009; Cole et al., 2011), (ii) MP from exfoliating cosmetics (Chang, 2015; Fendall and Sewell, 2009; Napper et al., 2015; Zitko and Hanlon, 1991) and (iii) clothing fibers found in wastewater treatment plants (Browne et al., 2011; Carr et al., 2016).”
• Microplastics in Taihu Lake, China. (2016, background): “Microplastics may pose a potential risk to the ambient environment because of their tendency to release certain contaminants (Bakir et al., 2014; Napper et al., 2015).”
• Microplastics in fisheries and aquaculture (2017, background): “Microplastics contain a mixture of chemicals added during manufacture, the so-called additives, and efficiently sorb (adsorb or absorb) persistent, bioaccumulative and toxic contaminants (PBTs) from the environment.”
• Secondary Microplastics Generation in the Sea Swash Zone With Coarse Bottom Sediments: Laboratory Experiments (2018, neutral): “, in the US−74–420μm Beach, 1972), are made of PE, PP, or PS (Zitko and Hanlon, 1991; Gregory, 1996; Hintersteiner et al., 2015; Lassen et al., 2015; Napper et al., 2015; Duis and Coors, 2016), and location of their sources is usually quite predictable.”
• Microplastics in freshwater and terrestrial environments: Evaluating the current understanding to identify the knowledge gaps and future research priorities. (2017, background): “…179 for sandblasting, either acrylic or polyester beads (von Moos et al., 2012; Zitko and Hanlon, 1991), 180 plastic pre-production pellets (‘nurdles’) or in personal care products such as exfoliating agents in 181 creams and cleansers containing polyethylene ‘microbeads’ (Napper et al., 2015).”
• Wastewater treatment plants as a pathway for microplastics: Development of a new approach to sample wastewater-based microplastics. (2017, result): “…of 337 microplastics in the primary effluent sample indicated that the PE particles had the same shape and 338 size range as microplastic beads extracted from facial s rub and toothpaste in previous studies (Carr 339 et al. 2016, Fendall and Sewell 2009, Napper et al. 2015, Schneiderman 2015).”
• Microplastics in seafood: Benchmark protocol for their extraction and characterization. (2016, background): “…are referred to as microparticles produced as such, i.e. plastic 64 pellets, exfoliating cosmetics or synthetic clothing fibres (Chang, 2015; Napper et al., 2015; Mato et al., 65 2001; van Wezel et al., 2015), while secondary microplastics derive from the breakdown of larger 66 plastic…”