Instituto Politécnico Nacional (IPN), Centro Mexicano para la Producción Más Limpia (CMP+L), Av. Acueducto S/n, Col. Barrio la Laguna Ticomán, Del Gustavo A. Madero, C.P. 07340, México, D.F., Mexico.
Department of Biotechnology and Bioengineering, Centro de Investigación y de Estudios Avanzados Del Instituto Politécnico Nacional, Ciudad de México, Mexico; Nanoscience & Nanotechnology Program, Centro de Investigación y de Estudios Avanzados Del Instituto Politécnico Nacional, Ciudad de México, Mexico.
Environ Pollut. 2020 Jun;261:114227. doi: 10.1016/j.envpol.2020.114227. Epub 2020 Feb 20.
Microplastics have become an inevitable component of our environment. Worldwide, free public fountains are common and one of the best sources of drinking water which are being installed with one of the viewpoints of reducing single-use plastics bottle consumption. However, the state of knowledge on how microplastics might be affecting in those free public drinking fountains is unknown. In this study, free drinking water fountains from 42 metro stations in Mexico City were being looked into for the occurrence of microplastics and investigated their shape type, size, abundance, distribution, polymer composition and surface morphology. Microplastics were detected in all the samples analyzed. The results revealed the significant abundance of microplastics ranging from 5 ± 2 to 91 ± 14 L in drinking water with an overall average of 18 ± 7 microplastics L. Transparent fibers (69%) were predominant in the identified microplastics followed by blue (24%) and red colored (7%) fibers. The most frequent microplastics dimensions ranged between 0.1 and 1 mm which is approximately 75% of the total microplastics. Micro-Raman spectroscopy analysis indicated that microplastics contained in drinking water were mainly polyesters (poly (trimethylene terephthalate)) and epoxy resin suggesting the possible contribution of wastewater discharges for microplastics contamination. Thus, this study findings show that free public drinking water fountains are potential microplastics hotspot for human consumption and provide useful references for mitigation measures.
微塑料已经成为我们环境中不可避免的组成部分。在全球范围内，免费公共喷泉很常见，是减少一次性塑料瓶消费的最佳饮用水源之一。然而，关于微塑料如何影响这些免费公共饮水机的知识状况尚不清楚。在这项研究中，研究人员调查了墨西哥城 42 个地铁站的免费饮用水喷泉，以了解微塑料的存在情况，并研究了它们的形状类型、大小、丰度、分布、聚合物组成和表面形态。所有分析的样本中都检测到了微塑料。研究结果表明，饮用水中微塑料的丰度显著，范围从 5 ± 2 到 91 ± 14 L，平均为 18 ± 7 个微塑料 L。在鉴定出的微塑料中，透明纤维（69%）占主导地位，其次是蓝色（24%）和红色（7%）纤维。最常见的微塑料尺寸在 0.1 到 1 毫米之间，约占总微塑料的 75%。微拉曼光谱分析表明，饮用水中含有的微塑料主要是聚酯（聚对苯二甲酸丙二醇酯）和环氧树脂，表明废水排放可能导致微塑料污染。因此，本研究结果表明，免费公共饮水机是人类消费的潜在微塑料热点，并为缓解措施提供了有用的参考。
