Abstract
Microplastics have been documented in a wide range of commercially available food products, and the presence of microplastics in tap water has received considerable attention in recent years. Although microplastics in drinking water pose a low concern for human health at current levels of exposure, there is a need to understand the potential pathways for human microplastic exposure. With the application of Rose Bengal staining, microplastics in 110 surface water-sourced tap water samples from urban sources in Hong Kong were qualified and morphologically characterized. A total of 224 items were identified in 86 (78.2%) samples with a mean concentration of 2.181 ± 0.165 n L−1. Fibrous and smaller (<1 mm) microplastics predominated in samples, accounting for 97.8% and 65.1% of the total microplastic count, respectively. Our results indicated a comparatively low level of microplastic contamination of tap water in Hong Kong. The potential sources of microplastics could be microplastic-polluted water bodies, atmospheric input and mechanical abrasion of plastic equipment during water treatment and distribution.
Highlights
Due to their excellent versatility and durability, plastics have come into widespread use, and their global production has increased markedly since the beginning of mass production, from 1.5 million tonnes in 1950 to almost 360 million tonnes in 2018 [1]
Our results indicated a comparatively low level of microplastic contamination of tap water in Hong Kong
Global concerns have been raised in recent years over the rampant proliferation of plastic debris in the environment, with particular attention paid to microplastics, which are small polymer particles less than 5 mm in size [2]
Summary
Due to their excellent versatility and durability, plastics have come into widespread use, and their global production has increased markedly since the beginning of mass production, from 1.5 million tonnes in 1950 to almost 360 million tonnes in 2018 [1]. Global concerns have been raised in recent years over the rampant proliferation of plastic debris in the environment, with particular attention paid to microplastics, which are small polymer particles less than 5 mm in size [2]. Microplastic occurrence has been extensively documented in freshwater and marine environments, such as rivers [3,4], estuaries [5,6], shorelines [7,8] and oceans [9,10]. Given the small size and ubiquity of microplastics, the topic of their effects on global ecosystems has been brought to the forefront. Multiple laboratory studies have further indicated the bottom-up propagation of microplastics across trophic levels and their accumulation in predators [14,15,16]. Ingestion of microplastics may exert various physical impacts, such as external/internal abrasion, intestinal obstruction, reduced energy
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