Oceanic long-range transport of organic additives present in plastic products: an overview
Most plastics are made of persistent synthetic polymer matrices that contain chemical additives in significant amounts. Millions of tonnes of plastics are produced every year and a significant amount of this plastic enters the marine environment, either as macro- or microplastics. In this article, a...
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ftmasarykis:oai:is.muni.cz:1804717 2023-10-25T01:35:33+02:00 Oceanic long-range transport of organic additives present in plastic products: an overview Andrade Helena Gluge Juliane Herzke Dorte Ashta Narain Maharaj Nayagar Shwetha Manohar Scheringer Martin 2021 14 https://is.muni.cz/publication/1804717 https://doi.org/10.1186/s12302-021-00522-x eng eng Springer https://is.muni.cz/publication/1804717 info:eu-repo/semantics/restrictedAccess Environmental Sciences Europe Plastic additives Long-range transport Leaching Floating plastic Plastic debris Arctic LRTP Chemicals info:eu-repo/semantics/article J 2021 ftmasarykis https://doi.org/10.1186/s12302-021-00522-x 2023-09-28T15:16:11Z Most plastics are made of persistent synthetic polymer matrices that contain chemical additives in significant amounts. Millions of tonnes of plastics are produced every year and a significant amount of this plastic enters the marine environment, either as macro- or microplastics. In this article, an overview is given of the presence of marine plastic debris globally and its potential to reach remote locations in combination with an analysis of the oceanic long-range transport potential of organic additives present in plastic debris. The information gathered shows that leaching of hydrophobic substances from plastic is slow in the ocean, whereas more polar substances leach faster but mostly from the surface layers of the particle. Their high content used in plastic of several percent by weight allows also these chemicals to be transported over long distances without being completely depleted along the way. It is therefore likely that various types of additives reach remote locations with plastic debris. As a consequence, birds or other wildlife that ingest plastic debris are exposed to these substances, as leaching is accelerated in warm-blooded organisms and in hydrophobic fluids such as stomach oil, compared to leaching in water. Our estimates show that approximately 8 ' 100-18 ' 900 t of various organic additives are transported with buoyant plastic matrices globally with a significant portion also transported to the Arctic. For many of these chemicals, long-range transport (LRT) by plastic as a carrier is their only means of travelling over long distances without degrading, resulting in plastic debris enabling the LRT of chemicals which otherwise would not reach polar environments with unknown consequences. The transport of organic additives via plastic debris is an additional long-range transport route that should also be considered under the Stockholm Convention. Article in Journal/Newspaper Arctic Masaryk University: Open Services of Information System Arctic Environmental Sciences Europe 33 1 |
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Open Polar |
collection |
Masaryk University: Open Services of Information System |
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ftmasarykis |
language |
English |
topic |
Plastic additives Long-range transport Leaching Floating plastic Plastic debris Arctic LRTP Chemicals |
spellingShingle |
Plastic additives Long-range transport Leaching Floating plastic Plastic debris Arctic LRTP Chemicals Andrade Helena Gluge Juliane Herzke Dorte Ashta Narain Maharaj Nayagar Shwetha Manohar Scheringer Martin Oceanic long-range transport of organic additives present in plastic products: an overview |
topic_facet |
Plastic additives Long-range transport Leaching Floating plastic Plastic debris Arctic LRTP Chemicals |
description |
Most plastics are made of persistent synthetic polymer matrices that contain chemical additives in significant amounts. Millions of tonnes of plastics are produced every year and a significant amount of this plastic enters the marine environment, either as macro- or microplastics. In this article, an overview is given of the presence of marine plastic debris globally and its potential to reach remote locations in combination with an analysis of the oceanic long-range transport potential of organic additives present in plastic debris. The information gathered shows that leaching of hydrophobic substances from plastic is slow in the ocean, whereas more polar substances leach faster but mostly from the surface layers of the particle. Their high content used in plastic of several percent by weight allows also these chemicals to be transported over long distances without being completely depleted along the way. It is therefore likely that various types of additives reach remote locations with plastic debris. As a consequence, birds or other wildlife that ingest plastic debris are exposed to these substances, as leaching is accelerated in warm-blooded organisms and in hydrophobic fluids such as stomach oil, compared to leaching in water. Our estimates show that approximately 8 ' 100-18 ' 900 t of various organic additives are transported with buoyant plastic matrices globally with a significant portion also transported to the Arctic. For many of these chemicals, long-range transport (LRT) by plastic as a carrier is their only means of travelling over long distances without degrading, resulting in plastic debris enabling the LRT of chemicals which otherwise would not reach polar environments with unknown consequences. The transport of organic additives via plastic debris is an additional long-range transport route that should also be considered under the Stockholm Convention. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Andrade Helena Gluge Juliane Herzke Dorte Ashta Narain Maharaj Nayagar Shwetha Manohar Scheringer Martin |
author_facet |
Andrade Helena Gluge Juliane Herzke Dorte Ashta Narain Maharaj Nayagar Shwetha Manohar Scheringer Martin |
author_sort |
Andrade Helena |
title |
Oceanic long-range transport of organic additives present in plastic products: an overview |
title_short |
Oceanic long-range transport of organic additives present in plastic products: an overview |
title_full |
Oceanic long-range transport of organic additives present in plastic products: an overview |
title_fullStr |
Oceanic long-range transport of organic additives present in plastic products: an overview |
title_full_unstemmed |
Oceanic long-range transport of organic additives present in plastic products: an overview |
title_sort |
oceanic long-range transport of organic additives present in plastic products: an overview |
publisher |
Springer |
publishDate |
2021 |
url |
https://is.muni.cz/publication/1804717 https://doi.org/10.1186/s12302-021-00522-x |
geographic |
Arctic |
geographic_facet |
Arctic |
genre |
Arctic |
genre_facet |
Arctic |
op_source |
Environmental Sciences Europe |
op_relation |
https://is.muni.cz/publication/1804717 |
op_rights |
info:eu-repo/semantics/restrictedAccess |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1186/s12302-021-00522-x |
container_title |
Environmental Sciences Europe |
container_volume |
33 |
container_issue |
1 |
_version_ |
1780730630501302272 |