Showing papers in "Environmental Pollution in 2016"

TL;DR: The results strongly suggest that high levels of microplastics occurred not only in water but also in organisms in Taihu Lake, the third largest Chinese lake located in one of the most developed areas of China.

TL;DR: A broad study of municipal wastewater treatment plant effluent as a pathway for microplastic pollution to enter receiving waters, finding fragments and fragments were found to be the most common type of particle within the effluent; however, some fibers may be derived from non-plastic sources.

TL;DR: It is proposed that mussels could be used as a potential bioindicator of microplastic pollution of the coastal environment and suggested that the numbers ofmicroplastic kept within a relatively narrow range in mussels and were closely related to the contamination of the environments.

TL;DR: The protocol using a KOH 10% solution and incubation at 60 °C during a 24 h period led to an efficient digestion of biological tissues with no significant degradation on all tested polymers, except for cellulose acetate.

TL;DR: Results suggest that under the experimental conditions of this study micro-PS led to direct toxic effects at tissue, cellular and molecular levels, and modulated fluoranthene kinetics and toxicity in marine mussels.

TL;DR: Water pollution was negatively associated with health outcomes, and the common pollutants in industrial wastewater had differential impacts on health outcomes.

TL;DR: The findings underlined the high potential ecological risks of FPs, and suggested that NPs should be given more concerns, in terms of their interaction with hydrophobic pollutants in the environment.

TL;DR: It was shown that the presence of high concentrations of microplastics with size >400 μm did not directly impact the growth of microalgae in the first days of contact and that the expression of three genes involved in the stress response was not modified after 78 days, the first evidence that depending on their chemical nature, microplastic will follow different fates in the environment.

TL;DR: The histological picture that characterizes both groups especially after 90 days of exposure, suggests that the intestinal functions can be in some cases totally compromised, and the impact of increasing microplastics pollution on the marine trophic web is underline.

TL;DR: Investigation of the ingestion and effects of ground polyethylene terephthalate textile microfibers on the freshwater zooplankton crustacean Daphnia magna found that daphnids were not able to recover from MP exposure after additional 24 h incubation period in a MP free medium with algae.

TL;DR: It is suggested that efforts to determine aquatic receptors at greatest risk of detrimental effects due to microplastic exposure, and their associated contaminants, are particularly warranted and there is a need to address the gaps identified.

TL;DR: The presence of microplastics even for inland lakes in remote areas under very low human impact is demonstrated, and microplastic pollution can be a global issue.

TL;DR: The first estimates of the longevity of different sizes of plastic debris at the ocean surface are provided, with a direct relationship between sample volume (buoyancy) and the time to attain a 50% probability of sinking.

TL;DR: A strong relationship between the sorption coefficients of the microplastics and the hydrophobicity of the sorbates suggests that hydrophobic interactions are of major importance.

TL;DR: Results of the investigation of concentrations of microplastic particles at two lakes in central Italy reveal elevated fiber concentrations compared to those of Lake Bolsena what might be a result of higher organic content and a shift in grain size distribution towards the silt and clay fraction at the shallow and highly eutrophic Lake Chiusi.

TL;DR: Determination of the mechanical and chemical effects of MPs on organisms is still a challenging area of research, and among the potential chemical effects it is necessary to differentiate those related to polymer properties from those due to the sorption/desorption of organic compounds.

TL;DR: This modelling study suggests that ingestion of microplastic does not provide a quantitatively important additional pathway for the transfer of adsorbed chemicals from seawater to biota via the gut.

TL;DR: Water quality classification data from publicly available government sources are compiled and analyzed, revealing the scale and extent of the crisis in China and indicating many nitrate sources including soil nitrogen, agricultural fertilizers, untreated wastewater and/or manure and locally show evidence of de-nitrification.

TL;DR: The high frequency of microplastic ingestion suggest that further research is needed to determine the residence time of microPlastic within the stomach and gut, potential for food web transfer, and adverse effects on wildlife and ecosystemic health.

TL;DR: Ecotoxicological risk assessment through RQs showed that organophosphorus and azol presented high risk for algae; organoph phosphorus, benzimidazoles, carbamates, juvenile hormone mimic and other pesticides for daphnia, and organphosphorus, azol and juvenile hormone mimics for fish.

TL;DR: Exposure to microplastics because of direct ingestion and consumption of contaminated prey poses a major threat to the health of fin whales in the Mediterranean Sea, according to this study.

TL;DR: Results revealed that the majority abundance of the observed non-plastics were viscose cellulose fibers, and further studies are required to evaluate the environmental hazards of microplastics, especially as they may "act as a contaminant transporter" to the Bohai Sea ecosystem.

TL;DR: Overall, both conventional and biodegradable microplastics in sandy sediments can affect the health and behaviour of lugworms and directly or indirectly reduce primary productivity of these habitats.

TL;DR: It has been confirmed that contaminates are moving through the food chain via root plant translocation system, to the human body thereby threatening human health, and some possible solution toward in which plants and microbes combine to remediate highly contaminated sites is suggested.

TL;DR: The results demonstrate the need for further investigation into heavy metal speciation and bioavailability in the sediment to ascertain the degree of toxicity and suggest a modified ecological risk index (MRI) employing enrichment factor is proposed.

TL;DR: The piecewise relationship based on the survey precisely predicted the changes in Cd transfer ratio across the multiple-field liming experiments, and piecewise-linearly increased Cd phytoavailability of paddy soils in central subtropical China.

TL;DR: The results show microplastic ingestion in 68% of full stomach samples with an average of 3.75 items per fish, which suggests that this type of contamination is ubiquitously distributed and originates from multiple sources.

TL;DR: N. norvegicus exposed to high levels of environmental microplastic pollution may experience reduced nutrient availability, which can result in reduced population stability and may affect the viability of local fisheries.

TL;DR: This is the first study to investigate the diversity and abundance of ARGs in drinking water treatment systems utilizing high-throughput qPCR techniques in China and observed significant positive correlations between ARGs and mobile genetic elements (MGEs) during the distribution systems, indicating that transposases and intI-1 may contribute to antibiotic resistance in drinkingWater.

TL;DR: It is indicated that repeated exposure to high concentrations of microplastics could alter assemblages in an important marine habitat by reducing the abundance of benthic fauna.