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Citation
Tags
HERO ID
3986046
Reference Type
Journal Article
Title
Microbeads in Commercial Facial Cleansers: Threatening the Environment
Author(s)
Bayo, J; Martinez, A; Guillen, M; Olmos, S; Roca, MJ; Alcolea, A
Year
2017
Is Peer Reviewed?
Yes
Journal
CLEAN - Soil, Air, Water
ISSN:
1863-0650
EISSN:
1863-0669
Volume
45
Issue
7
DOI
10.1002/clen.201600683
Web of Science Id
WOS:000405242300007
Abstract
The presence of primary microplastics in the environment is considered a major concern because of three main reasons: the physical damage to organisms that ingest them, the leaching of constituent contaminants such as monomers or additives, and the sorption of inorganic and organic chemicals. Microbeads collected from four facial cleansers, a personal care product commonly used by European consumers, have been analyzed in this paper. The variability in size distribution, specific surface area, the oxidation state of the polymer and the presence of whitening agents in one of the cosmetic formulations proved to be related with the ability to sorb heavy metals and polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), both in bi-distilled water and treated urban effluents. The sorption process for heavy metals proved to be related to a physical mechanism, without a specific interaction between the adsorbate and the microbead. In the case of PCBs, low molecular weight congeners proved to be preferentially sorbed by oxidized polyethylene (Microbead-B, MB-B), although the maximum amount for total PCBs sorption was for the facial cleanser with TiO2 in its composition (Microbead-A, MB-A) and a moderate ecotoxicity. Regression models developed for PCBs showed a similar behavior of these pollutants in bi-distilled and real treated urban effluents for microbeads, indicating that the exposed surface area was not the only mechanism responsible for sorption, but also the specific partitioning into the bulk microplastic.
Keywords
Heavy metals; Microplastics; PCBs; Sorption; Urban effluents
Tags
IRIS
•
PCBs
Not prioritized for screening
Litsearches
LitSearch: August 2016-August 2017
WoS
Not prioritized for screening
PFAS
•
PFAS 150
Not prioritized for screening
Trifluoroacetic acid
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