POTENTIAL TOXICITY of PLASTIC LITTER

on PELAGIC and BENTHIC ORGANISMS

Latvian Institute of Aquatic Ecology

MAIJA BALODE & LIENE MUZIKANTE

Plastic litter’s distribution

Plastics constitute the major part of marine

litter worldwide

Specific weight of plastics can reach even

90% of marine litter

Acccording Derraik J. (2002)

• Beach 32 – 90%

• Surface water 86%

• Sea floor 47 – 85%

Global production of plastics has increased from

1,5 million t in 1950 to 230 million t by 2008 and 25% of

plastics is produced in Europe

The first

nowadays plastic

product was

produced in 1907

Since 1990ies

plastic pollution in

Indian ocean

increased 100

times (Copello &

Quintara, 2003)

World’s plastic production

goes “hand in hand” with

plastic litter

Due to the increasing

plastic production,

increases of plastic debris

have been also observed

Plastic litter’s distribution

Plastic litter is found:

• On shorelines;

• Floating;

• On the sea and ocean surface;

• Troughout the water column;

• Debris on the seafloor.

Nowadays PL of all sizes and shapes have

become a serious transboundary problem

Safe plastic types

Polyethylene

terephthalate (PET

or PETE)

Used in soft drink, juice,

water, beer, mouthwash,

peanut butter, salad

dressing, detergent and

cleaner containers

Leaches antimony trioxide and

(2ethylhexyl) phthalate (DEHP)

DEHP has been strongly linked to asthma

and allergies in children. It may cause

certain types of cancer and it has been

linked to negative effects on the liver,

kidney, spleen, bone formation, and body

weight.

High-density

polyethylene (HDPE)

Used in opaque milk, water and juice

containers, bleach, detergent and

shampoo bottles, garbage bags, yogurt

and margarine tubs and cereal box

liners

Considered a safer plastic.

Research on risks associated with

this type of plastic is ongoing

Low-density

polyethylene (LDPE)

Used in grocery store, dry cleaning,

bread and frozen food bags, most

plastic wraps, and squeezable bottles

(honey, mustard).

Considered a safer plastic.

Research on risks associated with

this type of plastic is ongoing.

Polypropylene (PP) Used in ketchup bottles, yogurt and

margarine tubs, medicine and syrup

bottles, straws, and Rubbermaid and

other opaque plastic containers,

including baby bottles.

Considered a safer plastic.

Research on risks associated with

this type of plastic is ongoing.

Hazardous plastic types Polystyrene

(PS)

Used in Styrofoam containers, egg

cartons, disposable cups and bowls,

take-out food containers, plastic

cutlery, and compact disc cases

Leaches styrene is an endocrine

disruptor mimicking the female

hormone estrogen, and thus has the

potential to cause reproductive and

developmental problems. Styrene

migrates significantly from polystyrene

containers into the container’s contents

when oily foods are heated in such

containers

Polyvinyl

chloride (V or

Vinyl or PVC)

Used in toys, clear food and non-food

packaging (e.g., cling wrap), some

squeeze bottles, shampoo bottles,

cooking oil and peanut butter jars,

detergent and window cleaner bottles,

shower curtains, medical tubing, and

numerous construction products (e.g.,

pipes, siding).

PVC has been described as one of the

most hazardous consumer products

ever created leaches di (2-ethylhexyl)

phthalate (DEHP) or butyl benzyl

phthalate (BBzP) used as the

plasticizer or softener (usually DEHP).

Polycarbonate

(O or Others)

Beverage bottles, baby milk bottles,

electronic casing, Nalgene type water

bottles

The basis of this plastic type is

hydrolysis (degradation by water, often

referred to as leaching) occurring at

high temperature, release bisphenol A

.

Types of plastics commonly encountered

in the marine environment Plastic class Specific

gravity

Percentage

production*

Products and typical

origin

Polypropylene PP 0,85-0,83 24%

Rope, bottle caps,

netting

Low-density

polyethylene

LDPE

LLDPE 0,91-0,93 21%

Plastic bags, six-pack

rings, bootles netting,

drinking straws

Polyvinylchloride PVC 1,38 19%

Plastic film, bottles,

cups

Thermoplastic

polyester PET 1,37 7%

Plastic beverage

bottles

Polystyrene PS 1,05 6%

Plastic utensils, food

containers

Nylon PA <3% Netting and traps

Foamed

Polystyrene

Floats, bait boxes,

foam cups

Celuloze acetate CA Cigarette filters

The main pollution sources of plastic litter

~80% land origin

municipal waste

industrial waste waters

~ 20 % from shipping

Charles Moore, 1997

The Marine Algalita Research Foundation

334,271 mikropl.fr./km2

Materials and methods

Series of laboratory experiments were carried out to study the

impact of plastic products on different test organisms

Screening for acute toxicity was made on 8 different newly

bought plastic products, from 6 different plastic types

Plastic products were cuted in 10 x 10 mm pieces and 10 g was

placed in a 200 ml glass bottle.

No pre-washing of the products was made, so the first leaching

water was being tested.

100 ml of cultures growth medium was added, giving a

concentration of 100 g plastic material per L-1

Bottles were places in 20 ± 2 ºC temperature for 7 days.

After a week plastic product leachates were filteted through a

filter paper or GF/C filter to remove plastic pieces and the water

phase was tested for acute toxicity

Garbage bags

Binding covers

Compact disc

Phytoplankton bottles

Plastic dishes

Drinking water bottles

Plastic egg containers

Dish sponges

Plastic products used in bioassays

Nr. Plastic product Plastic type Symbol Plastic code

1.

Plastic dishes polypropylene PP 5

2.

Compact disc polyvinyle chloride PVC 3

3.

Garbage bag low density polyethylene LDPE 4

4.

Dish sponge polyurithene PU 7

5.

Phytoplankton

bottle polyvinyle chloride PVC 3

6. Binding covers

polyvinyle chloride PVC 3

7. Drinking water

bottles polycarbonate PC 7

8. Plastic egg container

polystyrene PS 6

Materials and methods

Bioassays used for toxicity detection:

4 bioassays with 7 testobjects on differ. trophic level were used:

Freshwater algal growth inhibition test with unicellular green algae; using Desmodesmus communis (LVS EN ISO 8692:2005)

Acute toxicity test: inhibition of the mobility of Daphnia magna Straus (LVS EN ISO 6341:1996)

ARTOXKIT M test, using Artemia salina

Acute toxicity test: inhibition of the mobility of benthic crustaceans: freshwater amphipods Hyalella azteca, Gammarus pulex; brackish wateramphipods: Monoporeia affinis, Corophium volutator (ISO 16712:2005)

Testobjects

Corophium volutator Monoporeia affinis Gammarus pulex

Hyalella azteca

Desmodesmus communis

Daphnia magna

Artemia salina

Test conditions: • Test standart: LVS EN ISO 8692:2005

• Test organism: Desmodesmus

communis

• Replicates: 3

• Volume: 30 ml

• Photoperiod: day/night = 16/8

• Temperature: 24°C

• Test medium: brackish

www.microscopy-uk.org.uk.

http://www.butbn.cas.cz/ccala/col_images/463.jpg

Test conditions: • Test standart: LVS ISO 6341:1996

• Organism: Dapnia magna Straus

(younger than 24 h)

• Replicates: 3

• Organisms per replicate: 5-7

• Volume: 10 – 15 ml

• Duration: 48 h

• Photoperiod: day/night = 16/8

• Temperature: 20±1C

• Test medium: freshwater

Test conditions: • Test standart: Artoxkit M test

• Test oganism: Artemia salina

(younger than 24 h)

• Replicates: 5

• Organisms per replicate: 10

• Volume: 3ml

• Photoperiod: day/night = 24/0 h

• Salinity: 15 ‰

• Temperature: 20±1C

• Test medium: marine

• Duration: 48 (72) h

http://www.artemiaworld.com/img/artemia.03.jpg

jysco.com www.greenpioneer.co.kr/3-

2_en.html

RESULTS

BIOASSAYS using

freshwater and

brackish water

AMPHIPODS

Gammarus pulex

-20

0

20

40

60

80

100

120

Controle Plastic dishes Compact disc Garbage bag Dish sponge Phytoplanktonbottle

Binding covers

Mo

rtal

ity

(%)

Effect of plastic product leahcates on Gammarus pulex mortality

48 h

96 h

* Filtered with GF/C

Hyalella

azteca

0

20

40

60

80

100

120

Controle Plastic dishes Compact disc Garbage bag Dish sponge Phytoplanktonbottle

Binding covers

Mo

rtal

ity

(%)

Effect of plastic product leachates on Hyalella azteca mortality

48 h

96 h

-20,00

-10,00

0,00

10,00

20,00

30,00

40,00

50,00

60,00

70,00

80,00

90,00

100,00

Mo

rtal

ity

(%)

Effect of plastic product leachates on Hyalella azteca mortality

48 h

96 h* Filtred with filter paper

* Filtered with GF/C

Corophium

volutator

-20

0

20

40

60

80

100

120

Mo

rtal

ity

(%)

Effect of plastic product leachates on Corophium voluntator mortality

48 h

96 h

-20

0

20

40

60

80

100

Mo

rtal

ity

(%)

Effect of plastic product leachates on Corophium volutator mortality

48 h

96 h

* Filtered with filter paper

* Filtered with GF/C

Monoporeia

affinis

-20

0

20

40

60

80

100

120

Controle Plastic dishes Compact disc Garbage bag Dish sponge Phytoplanktonbottle

Binding covers

Mo

rtal

ity

(%)

Effect of plastic product leachates on Monoporeia affinis mortality

48h

-20

0

20

40

60

80

100

Mo

rtal

ity

(%)

Effect of plastic product leachates on Monoporeia affinis mortality

48 h

96 h

* Filtered with filter paper

* Filtered with GF/C

BIOASSAYS using

MICROALGAE

Desmodesmus communis

-0,04

-0,03

-0,02

-0,01

0

0,01

0,02

Spec

ific

gro

wth

rat

e

Effect of plastic product leachate on Desmodesmus communis growth rate after 72 h

Filtrated with filter paper Filtrated with GF/C

BIOASSAYS using

PELAGIC

CRUSTACEANS

Daphnia magna

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

90

100

110

24 h 48 h 72 h

Mo

rtal

ity

(%)

Effect of plastic product leachates on Daphnia magna mortality

Controle

Plastic dishes

Compact disc

Garbage bags

Dish sponges

Phytoplankton bottle

Binding covers

Water bottle

Plastic egg container

Artemia salina

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

90

100

110

24 h 48 h 72 h

Mo

rtal

ity

(%)

Effect of plastic product leachates on Artemia salina mortality

Controle

Plastic dishes

Compact disc

Garbage bags

Dish sponges

Phytoplankton bottle

Binding covers

Water bottle

Plastic egg container

CONCLUSIONS

• In general 60 % of tested plastic products (5 from 8) caused a negative impact on majority of used testobjects - microalgae and/ or crustaceans

• The most toxic from all tested plastic products were “Compact discs” (made from polyvinyle chloride PVC) and “Dish sponges” (made from polyurithene PU)

• All benthic crustaceans (freshwater amphipods Hyalella azteca, Gammarus pulex; brackish water amphipods: Monoporeia affinis, Corophium volutator ) showed the most inhibiting impact at the presence of “Compact discs” causing 100 % mortality after 48 hours expose and “Dish sponge” evoking 50 – 100 % mortality

CONCLUSIONS

• “Compact discs” (made from polyvinyle chloride PVC) were toxic not only for benthic crustaceans, but also for pelagic crustaceans - Artemia salina

• Pelagic crustaceans (freshwater amphipods Daphnia magna and marine water amphipod Artemia salina) were more sensitive to the presence of “Dish sponge“, evoking 70 – 100 % mortality after 24 – 72 hours exposure in dish sponge leachates

• “Dish sponge“ caused also significant (fourfold) decrease of microalgae Desmodesmus communis growth rate

CONCLUSIONS

• Significant toxicity showed also leachates from “Garbage bags “ (made of low-density polyethylene LDPE) causing 63 - 100% morality of amphipods - Monoporeia affinis and Hyalella azteca

• For Hyalella azteca toxic were also leachates from “Phytoplankton sampling bottles” (made from polyvinyle chloride PVC), evoking 50 – 75 % mortality, but for Daphnia magna and Artemia salina inhibition was observed after the impact of “Drinking water bottles”(made from polycarbonates PC), causing 30 – 68 % mortality

• The lowest negative impact was caused by leachates from “Plastic dishes” (made from polypropylene (PP), as well as from “Binding covers” (polyvinyle chloride; PVC) and “Plastic egg conteiners” (polistyrene PS)

Tested microalgae were less sensitive to the presence of potentially toxic plastics as crustaceans

The most toxic were plastics, which toxic impact was indicated already in other publications, like polyvinyl chloride (PVC), polystyrene (PS, polycarbonat (PC)

Diverse results using different filtration method reveal about the role of injection interpretation of experimental results

In general we can conclude that plastic products can cause a negative impact on aquatic (freshwater, brackish water and marine) organisms on different trophic level and influence their sustainable development.

CONCLUSIONS

Plastmasa – sintētiski organiski polimēri, ko iegūst no dabasgāzes un naftas monomēriem

Satur arī pildvielas (stikla šķiedra, audums, smilts, vizla, papīrs, koka

milti), plastifikatorus, krāsvielas, stabilizatorus

Dominē starp jūras atkritumiem (65-90%), jo: viegli - mazāks blīvums kā ūdenim (polietilēns, polistirēns)

ļoti ilgstoši nenoārdās, īpaši ūdenī (zemāks UV starojums un T°, sāļums)

mehāniska abrāzija + fotodegradācija (~400-1000 g.)