A review on the detection of micro and nano plastics in drinking water

Microplastics, nanoplastics, and the additives they contain are of concern due to their ecological and public health impacts. Numerous investigations have documented these contaminants in both treated tap water and bottled water which represent a pathway to human exposure. Microplastics find their way from many sources into many environments, however, the precise impact of each source remains uncertain. Some evidence suggests that certain microplastics present in drinking water could originate from the treatment and distribution systems of tap water, or the bottling process of bottled water. This study addresses microplastics in tap water and the factors that lead to their formation in water distribution networks (WDN). A literature review was conducted on Web of Science and Scopus, using keywords like ëmerging pollutants,̈ m̈icroplastics in tap wateränd ẗreatment water plants and microplastics.̈ In addition, a bibliometric tool, called VOSviewer, was implemented for a better analysis. Several case studies report higher concentrations of microplastics in water reaching households than in water leaving the treatment plants. In other words, the WDN seems to be a pollutant source, probably by leaching or scour. However, there are other studies that found no cause-effect relationship (correlations) of microplastics leached from the materials of the WDN. In these studies, some of the parameters governing the formation of microplastics in WDN, such as pH, free chlorine concentration, pipe material, and time, are not considered explicitly. After analyzing the literature, it is concluded that some hydraulic phenomena, such as water hammer, stagnant flows, changes in velocity, and flow direction in pipes due to operational activities, can cause fatigue and degradation of pipe materials. These hydraulic phenomena and parameters should be taken into account in future research. Also see: https://micro2024.sciencesconf.org/558278/document