SETAC Europe Rome 2018

Chair a session

3.09 - New Horizons in Particulate Polymer Analysis: Micro- and Nanoplastics and Tire Rubber Detection, Characterisation and Impacts in the Environment

Fully attended! What a success!

Monday 14 May 2018 | 1:55 p.m.−3:30 p.m. | Room N

Fragmentation of plastics and tire rubber debris, the production of plastic particles (< 5 mm) and their release in the environment are emerging pollutants of concern. Environmentalconcentrations of microplastics (MPs, 0.001 - 5 mm) and nanoplastics (NPs, < 1 μm) remainlargely unknown, primarily due to the analytical challenges of detection. Additional reports have shown micronized (and potentially nanonized) rubber particles, emanating from

car tire abrasion and road surface wear, contribute significantly to the “plastic soup” inaquatic environments. Rubber particles are often described with microplastics, but little is known on their particular ecotoxicological impacts. Progress in plastic and rubber particle detection is hampered by a lack of suitable analytical tools required for characterisation and monitoring, as well as adequate and standardised laboratory protocols for analysis and hazard testing. Environmental risk assessment strategies developed for solutes may be inadequate for particles as their fate is governed by kinetic principles of aggregation and transport. Furthermore, the quantitative analysis of plastic and rubber particles areanalytically challenging, as carbon-based particles are particularly difficult to detect and differentiate from the matrix. This is especially true at trace concentrations within naturalwaters, wastewater treatment systems, or biological tissues. The current lack of standardised and validated detection and analysis methods of MPs/NPs/rubber in realistic environmental concentrations are critical knowledge gaps for risk assessment of these particles. This session aims at discussing: 1) promising analytical approaches that identify and characterisethese specific particulates in complex environmental and biological matrices; 2) theapplicability of these methods in environmental studies, analytical quality assurance, standardisation and harmonisation/inter-laboratory calibration of methodological advances,and 3) different analysis for rubber particles and if they should be considered as a distinctpollutant from MP/NPs.