Nanoplastics released from daily used silicone and latex products during mechanical breakdown

Mikael T. Ekvall, Isabella Gimskog, Egle Kelpsiene, Alice Mellring, Alma Månsson, Martin Lundqvist, Tommy Cedervall

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract

Waste of polymer products, especially plastics, in nature has become a problem that caught the awareness of the general public during the last decade. The macro- and micro polymers in nature will be broken down by naturally occurring events such as mechanical wear and ultra-violet (UV) radiation which will result in the generation of polymeric particles in the nano-size range. We have recently shown that polystyrene and high-density polyethylene macroplastic can be broken down into nano-sized particles by applying mechanical force from an immersion blender. In this article, we show that particles in the nano-size range are released from silicone and latex pacifiers after the same treatment. Additionally, boiling the pacifiers prior to the mechanical breakdown process results in an increased number of particles released from the silicone but not the latex pacifier. Particles from the latex pacifier are acutely toxic to the freshwater filter feeding zooplankter Daphnia magna.

Original languageEnglish
Article numbere0289377
Number of pages10
JournalPLoS ONE
Volume18
Issue number9
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2023

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
Copyright: © 2023 Ekvall et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

Subject classification (UKÄ)

  • Ecology
  • Other Chemistry Topics

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