State Environmental Protection Key Laboratory of Environmental Pollution Health Risk Assessment, South China Institute of Environmental Sciences, Ministry of Ecology and Environment, Guangzhou, 510655, China.
State Environmental Protection Key Laboratory of Environmental Pollution Health Risk Assessment, South China Institute of Environmental Sciences, Ministry of Ecology and Environment, Guangzhou, 510655, China; Beijing Key Laboratory of Emerging Organic Contaminants Control, State Key Joint Laboratory of Environmental Simulation and Pollution Control, Collaborative Innovation Center for Regional Environmental Quality, School of Environment, Tsinghua University, Beijing, 100084, China.
Chemosphere. 2020 Jun;248:126067. doi: 10.1016/j.chemosphere.2020.126067. Epub 2020 Jan 31.
Microplastics (MPs) pollution and its potential environmental risks have drawn increasing concerns in recent years. Among which, microbeads in personal care and cosmetic products has becoming an emerging issue for their abundance as well as the knowledge gaps in their precise environmental behaviors in freshwater. The present study investigated the sorption process of tetrabromobisphenol A (TBBPA), the most widely applied and frequently encountered flame retardant in aquatic environments, on two sources of polyethylene (PE) particles (pristine PE particles and microbeads isolated from personal care and cosmetic products). Significantly enhanced adsorption capacity of microbeads was observed with up to 5-folds higher than the pristine PE particles. The sorption efficiency was also governed by solution pH, especially for the cosmetic-derived microbeads, indicating the strong adsorption of TBBPA on PE was dominated by both hydrophobic and electrostatic interactions. Additionally, combined effects on redox status of zebrafish were evaluated with two environmental relevant concentrations of PE particles (0.5 and 5 mg L) using integrated biomarker response (IBR) index through a 14-d exposure. Co-exposure induced significant antioxidative stress than either PE or TBBPA alone when exposed to 0.5 mg L of MPs. After 7-d depuration, the IBR value for combination treatments [TBBPA + PE (L)] was 3-fold compared with that in MP-free groups, indicating the coexistence might exert a prolonged adverse effects on aquatic organisms. These results highlight the probability of risk from microbead pollution in freshwater, where toxic compounds can be adsorbed on microbeads in a considerable amount resulting in potential adverse effects towards aquatic organisms.
微塑料 (MPs) 污染及其潜在的环境风险近年来引起了越来越多的关注。其中，个人护理和化妆品产品中的微珠因其丰富度以及在淡水中其精确环境行为方面的知识空白而成为一个新出现的问题。本研究调查了四溴双酚 A (TBBPA) 在两种聚乙烯 (PE) 颗粒（原始 PE 颗粒和从个人护理和化妆品产品中分离出的微珠）上的吸附过程，TBBPA 是在水生环境中应用最广泛和最常遇到的阻燃剂。微珠表现出明显增强的吸附能力，最高可达原始 PE 颗粒的 5 倍。吸附效率也受溶液 pH 值的控制，对于源自化妆品的微珠尤其如此，表明 TBBPA 在 PE 上的强吸附主要由疏水性和静电相互作用控制。此外，通过整合生物标志物反应 (IBR) 指数，用两个环境相关浓度的 PE 颗粒（0.5 和 5 mg L）评估了对斑马鱼氧化还原状态的联合影响，该指数通过 14 天暴露来评估。与单独暴露于 0.5 mg L MPs 相比，当暴露于 0.5 mg L 时，共暴露会引起明显的抗氧化应激。经过 7 天的净化，组合处理 [TBBPA+PE (L)] 的 IBR 值是无 MPs 组的 3 倍，表明共存可能对水生生物产生长期的不利影响。这些结果强调了淡水微珠污染的风险可能性，其中有毒化合物可以在相当大的程度上被吸附在微珠上，从而对水生生物产生潜在的不利影响。
