Microplásticos en el agua potable de la ciudad de Riobamba

Every year miles of tons of plastic are manufactured; yet, small amount of plastic are being recycled. In the environment is fragmented, it reaches microscopic sizes that end in oceans and lakes. That is why the journalistic organization in collaboration with the universities of New York and Minnesota carried out a study in 5 continents. The study detected that 83% of the analyzed samples contained microplastics. In Quito 24 water samples for consumption indicated that 75% of the samples present microplastics. It is unknown how the microplastics originate in water sources, reservoirs and water taps. In addition, this study has been conducted in other cities around the world for what is known as the percentage of microplastics present in the drinking water of the City of Riobamba, since 100% of the distribution networks are made of polyvinyl chloride. For the identification of microplastics in water, the methodology of Orb Media, Liebezeit adapted for the UNACH team was applied by vacuum filtration with a cellulose filter and pink bengal dye. Later they were observed in the Stereoscope (iVu7000 with 7.1Mpx) through an integrated camera, obtaining the identification of microplastics in 12 samples of the 62 analyzed. The results of the analysis show that there is a 19% microplastics presence in the water, however, the field units for every 250 ml of measured, are not detrimental to human health. Being a small sample was main limitation, so, future research must be conducted.