Understanding the health and environmental risks of microplastics

Posted by Johnson Brown on June 30th, 2022

Research has shown that tiny pieces of plastic are almost everywhere—in the air, water, food, and even in the human body—but it's unclear what risks nano- and microplastics pose to the environment or human health. Researchers are using lessons from nanotoxicology to begin investigating the risks of microplastics, according to a cover story in Chemical & Engineering News, the American Chemical Society's independent news outlet.

Senior reporter Britt E. Erickson writes that microplastics (plastic flakes less than 5 millimeters in diameter) and nanoplastics (plastic flakes less than 1 μm in diameter) can come in different sizes and shapes and can be made from a variety of materials. Because not all microplastics are created equal and their impact on human health and the environment can vary, studying them is complicated. So far, most researchers have used polystyrene beads in their experiments because they are readily available, but these beads are not representative of the microplastics found in the environment. Most microplastics found in air and water are fragments, not spheres. Polystyrene isn't the only polymer in the environment; polyethylene, polypropylene, and polyamides are also common. Once in the environment, UV light and pollutants can change the properties of particles.

Making regulatory decisions is a challenge due to limited exposure data on microplastics. Over the past decade, the toxicology community has encountered similar problems with nanoparticles, so scientists hope that lessons from nanotoxicology can be applied to microplastics. Researchers are starting to standardize the various microplastics and nanoplastics used in the study so that the findings can be reproduced and better replicate real-world conditions. Scientists are using systems that mimic human function in the lab to figure out how ingested and inhaled particulate matter affects human gut and lung cells. While scientists aren't yet sure whether the influx of money into toxicology research will lead to meaningful regulatory changes, hopefully, more information about the health risks of these materials is coming.

Matexcel, a leading service provider in materials science, with years of commitment to supply better polymers, nanoparticles and other materials for worldwide customers from both academia and industry, can provide microplastic testing services. Matexcel uses qualitative analysis equipment to determine the type of microplastics (MPs), quantitative analysis equipment to determine the quantity, content, etc., and also analyze the chemical substances adhering to the surface of the microplastics.

The common methods for analyzing microplastics are as follows:

Infrared spectrometer

Pyrolysis Gas Chromatography (Py-GC)

Energy dispersive X-ray fluorescence spectrometer

Differential scanning calorimeter

Dynamic particle image analyzer

If you have any questions about microplastics testing, feel free to contact Matexcel.