Nanoplastic toxicity towards freshwater organisms

The fragmentation of plastic litter into smaller fragments, known as microplastics and nanoplastics, as well as their toxicity and environmental distribution have become issues of high concern. Furthermore, the popularization of bioplastics as a greener substitute of conventional plastics represents...

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Detalhes bibliográficos
Autores: Tamayo Belda, Miguel, Pulido-Reyes, Gerardo, Rosal, Roberto, Fernández Piñas, Francisca
Tipo de documento: artigo
Data de publicação:2022
País:España
Recursos:IAPH
Repositório:Biblos-e Archivo. Repositorio Institucional de la UAM
Idioma:inglês
OAI Identifier:oai:repositorio.uam.es:10486/705796
Acesso em linha:http://hdl.handle.net/10486/705796
https://dx.doi.org/10.20517/wecn.2022.17
Access Level:Acceso aberto
Palavra-chave:Nanoplastics
Environmental Fate
Toxicity
Freshwater Organisms
Biología y Biomedicina / Biología
Descrição
Resumo:The fragmentation of plastic litter into smaller fragments, known as microplastics and nanoplastics, as well as their toxicity and environmental distribution have become issues of high concern. Furthermore, the popularization of bioplastics as a greener substitute of conventional plastics represents a challenge for the scientific community in view of the limited information concerning their potential environmental impact. Here, we systematically review the recent knowledge on the environmental fate and toxicity of nanoplastics in freshwater environments, discuss the results obtained thus far, and identify several knowledge gaps. The sources and environmental behaviors of nanoplastics are presented considering in vitro, in vivo, and in silico studies with a focus on real exposure scenarios. Their effects on organisms are classified based on their impact on primary producers, primary consumers, and secondary consumers. This review covers the main results published in the last four years, including all relevant experimental details and highlighting the most sensitive toxicity endpoints assessed in every study. We also include more recent results on the potential environmental impact of biodegradable plastics, a type of material belonging to the category of bioplastics for which there are still scarce data. This review identifies a need to perform studies using secondary nanoplastics rather than synthetic commercial materials as well as to include other polymers apart from polystyrene. There is also an urgent need to assess the possible risk of nanoplastics at environmentally realistic concentrations using sublethal endpoints and long-term assays