IMDEA Water Institute, Science and Technology Campus of the University of Alcalá, Avenida Punto Com, 2, 28805, Alcalá de Henares, Madrid, Spain.
IMDEA Water Institute, Science and Technology Campus of the University of Alcalá, Avenida Punto Com, 2, 28805, Alcalá de Henares, Madrid, Spain; Cavanilles Institute of Biodiversity and Evolutionary Biology, University of Valencia, C/ Catedrático José Beltrán 2, 46980 Paterna, Valencia, Spain.
J Hazard Mater. 2023 Jan 5;441:129814. doi: 10.1016/j.jhazmat.2022.129814. Epub 2022 Aug 22.
Determining the risks of microplastics is difficult because data is of variable quality and cannot be compared. Although sediments are important sinks for microplastics, no holistic risk assessment framework is available for this compartment. Here we assess the risks of microplastics in freshwater sediments worldwide, using strict quality criteria and alignment methods. Published exposure data were screened for quality using new criteria for microplastics in sediment and were rescaled to the standard 1-5000 µm microplastic size range. Threshold effect data were also screened for quality and were aligned to account for the polydispersity of environmental microplastics and for their bioaccessible fraction. Risks were characterized for effects triggered by food dilution or translocation, using ingested particle volume and surface area as ecologically relevant metrics, respectively. Based on species sensitivity distributions, we determined Hazardous Concentrations for 5% of the species (HC, with 95% CI) of 4.9 × 10 (6.6 × 10 - 1.9 × 10) and 1.1 × 10 (3.2 × 10 - 4.0 × 10) particles / kg sediment dry weight, for food dilution and translocation, respectively. For all locations considered, exposure concentrations were either below or in the margin of uncertainty of the HC values. We conclude that risks from microplastics to benthic communities cannot be excluded at current concentrations in sediments worldwide.
确定微塑料的风险是困难的，因为数据质量参差不齐，无法进行比较。尽管沉积物是微塑料的重要汇，但对于这一隔室，尚无综合风险评估框架。在这里，我们使用严格的质量标准和调整方法，评估全球淡水沉积物中微塑料的风险。使用沉积物中微塑料的新标准筛选了已发表的暴露数据的质量，并将其重新调整到标准的 1-5000 µm 微塑料尺寸范围。还筛选了阈值效应数据的质量，并对其进行了调整，以考虑到环境微塑料的多分散性及其可生物利用部分。使用摄入颗粒体积和表面积作为生态相关指标，分别针对因食物稀释或转移而引发的效果来描述风险。基于物种敏感性分布，我们确定了 5%的物种（HC，95%置信区间）的危险浓度，分别为 4.9×10（6.6×10 - 1.9×10）和 1.1×10（3.2×10 - 4.0×10）个颗粒/公斤沉积物干重，用于食物稀释和转移。对于所有考虑的地点，暴露浓度要么低于 HC 值的不确定性范围，要么就在其范围内。我们的结论是，目前全球沉积物中微塑料对底栖生物群落的风险不能被排除。
