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Mutual Effects and Uptake of Organic Contaminants and Nanoplastics by Lettuce in Co-Exposure
Summary
Researchers found that when lettuce was grown with both nanoplastics and common agricultural pollutants, the nanoplastics dramatically increased the amount of the painkiller ibuprofen absorbed into the plant's leaves (by up to 309% in salty conditions). This means nanoplastics in farm soil could act as carriers that boost how much of other harmful chemicals end up in the food we eat. The study highlights how microplastic contamination in agriculture can amplify human exposure to multiple pollutants at once.
Organic contaminants, such as pesticides and pharmaceuticals, are commonly found in agricultural systems. With the growing use of plastic products, micro- and nanoplastics (MNPs) are increasingly detected in these agricultural systems, necessitating research into their interactions and joint effects to truly understand their impact. Unfortunately, while there has been a long history of research into the uptake of organic pollutants by plants, similar research with MNPs is only beginning, and studies on their mutual effects and plant uptake are extremely rare. In this study, we examined the effects of three agriculturally relevant organic pollutants with distinctive hydrophobicity as measured by log KOW (trimethoprim: 0.91, atrazine: 2.61, and ibuprofen: 3.97) and 500 nm polystyrene nanoplastics on their uptake and accumulation by lettuce at two different salinity levels. Our results showed that nanoplastics increased the shoot concentration of ibuprofen by 77.4 and 309% in nonsaline and saline conditions, respectively. Alternatively, organic co-contaminants slightly lowered the PS NPs uptake in lettuce with a more pronounced decrease in saline water. These results underscore the impactful interactions of hydrophobic organic pollutants and increasing MNPs on a dynamic global environment.