Microplastic as a Vector for Chemicals in the Aquatic Environment: Critical Review and Model-Supported Reinterpretation of Empirical Studies

By A. Koelmans, A. Bakir, G. A. Burton, Colin R. Janssen. Environmental Science and Technology, 2016

1,304 citations recorded by the source corpus.

The hypothesis that ‘microplastic will transfer hazardous hydrophobic organic chemicals (HOC) to marine animals’ has been central to the perceived hazard and risk of plastic in the marine environment. The hypothesis is often cited and has gained momentum, turning it into paradigm status. We provide a critical evaluation of the scientific literature regarding this hypothesis. Using new calculations based on published studies, we explain the sometimes contrasting views and unify them in one interpretive framework. One explanation for the contrasting views among studies is that they test different hypotheses. When reframed in the context of the above hypothesis, the available data become consistent. We show that HOC microplastic-water partitioning can be assumed to be at equilibrium for most microplastic residing in the oceans. We calculate the fraction of total HOC sorbed by plastics to be small compared to that sorbed by other media in the ocean. We further demonstrate consistency among (a) measured HOC transfer from microplastic to organisms in the laboratory, (b) measured HOC desorption rates for polymers in artificial gut fluids (c) simulations by plastic-inclusive bioaccumulation models and (d) HOC desorption rates for polymers inferred from first principles. We conclude that overall the flux of HOCs bioaccumulated from natural prey overwhelms the flux from ingested microplastic for most habitats, which implies that microplastic ingestion is not likely to increase the exposure to and thus risks of HOCs in the marine environment.

Subfields: Health, Toxicology and Mutagenesis, Pollution

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/150b0092fb3c99453b9ff378d7893800ab2a8cf1

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Citations in the corpus

Microplastics in freshwaters and drinking water: Critical review and assessment of data quality (2019, background): “The quality of microplastic research has been debated recently (Burton, 2017; Connors et al., 2017; Koelmans et al., 2016) and has been quantitatively assessed for studies on microplastic ingestion by biota (Hermsen et al.”
Microplastics in Fish and Shellfish – A Threat to Seafood Safety? (2020, background): “organisms; the major sources are preys and seawater (Bakir et al. 2016; Beckingham and Ghosh 2017; Gouin et al. 2011; Koelmans et al. 2016; Lusher et al. 2017).”
All is not lost: deriving a top-down mass budget of plastic at sea (2017, positive): “The BAU scenario assumes that annual plastic production and leakage/emission continue to increase according to the polynomial parameters derived from 1950–2013 data (PlasticsEurope 2013, Koelmans et al 2016).”
Microplastics in freshwater and terrestrial environments: Evaluating the current understanding to identify the knowledge gaps and future research priorities. (2017, background): “736 Changes to environmental conditions will influence equilibrium dynamics between chemicals 737 and plastics, impacting on chemical accumulation and bioavailability (Bakir et al., 2016; Bakir et al., 738 2014; Karapanagioti and Klontza, 2008; Koelmans et al., 2016).”
Contributions of Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy in microplastic pollution research: A review (2020, background): “Several toxicology studies (organismal-vector) including uptake of MPs and associated pollutants have been conducted in laboratories (Browne et al., 2013; Cole et al., 2013; Koelmans et al., 2016).”