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Solving a microplastic dilemma? Evaluating additive release with a dynamic leaching method for microplastic assessment (DyLeMMA)
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Researchers developed and validated a dynamic leaching method (DLMMA) for assessing additive release from microplastics under environmentally relevant sink conditions, finding that static leaching methods overestimate additive concentrations compared to percolation-based approaches representative of soil and aquatic environments.
Microplastics and plastic additives are contaminants of emerging environmental concern. Static leaching methods are commonly applied to assess the rate and extent of additive release from microplastics. However, this approach may not be representative of environmental conditions where near infinite dilution or percolation commonly occur. We evaluated three different approaches for assessing additive leaching under environmentally relevant sink conditions, culminating in the refinement and validation of (namic aching ethod for icroplastic ssessment). Analysis was performed using a high-resolution liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry method enabling targeted quantification of additives and screening for non-intentionally added substances. Using four different plastics, sink conditions were maintained over the duration of the test, thereby avoiding solubility limited release and ensuring environmental relevance. Background contamination from ubiquitous additive chemicals was minimised, thereby providing good sensitivity and specificity. Resulting data, in the form of additive release curves, should prove suitable for fitting to release models and derivation of parameters describing additive leaching from microplastics.Key attributes of DyLeMMA:•Environmentally relevant dynamic leaching method for microplastics, demonstrated to maintain sink conditions over the test duration,•Simple, fast, and cost-effective approach without complication of using a solid phase sink,•Provide data suitable for understanding microplastic leaching kinetics and mechanisms.
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DyLeMMA: A dynamic leaching method to assess the fate of plastic additives in microplastic pollution
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Researchers developed a new dynamic leaching method called DyLeMMA to more realistically assess how quickly chemical additives leach from microplastics under conditions that better simulate natural environments. Previous static methods were found to overestimate leaching rates by not accounting for how rapidly concentrations change over time in the real world. More realistic leaching data are important for accurately assessing the chemical risk that microplastics pose to aquatic organisms.
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Researchers measured how chemical additives leach out of different types of microplastics under realistic environmental conditions and found wildly different release rates — spanning five orders of magnitude over 64 days — highlighting that the type of plastic matters greatly when assessing the chemical risks microplastics pose to ecosystems.
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Researchers developed a theoretical framework for sampling and analytical procedures to characterize the speciation of plastic-associated chemical additives across environmental compartments, addressing a gap in routine monitoring programs that have not accounted for additives still bound to plastic particles. The study examines additive bioavailability and plastic-associated transport as key risk factors in environmental contamination assessment.
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This review examined how microplastic-associated chemical additives leach into aquatic environments, summarizing recent advances in understanding release kinetics, phase equilibrium between microplastics and water, and the environmental and health risks posed by organic additives and heavy metals.
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Researchers developed a standardized protocol for creating plastic leachate solutions to test the toxicity of chemicals that microplastics release into water. Different types of microplastics released varying amounts of harmful additives, and the resulting leachates were toxic to marine organisms at environmentally relevant concentrations. Having a consistent testing method is important because it allows scientists to compare results across studies and better assess real-world risks.
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