Direção de Laboratórios, Empresa Portuguesa das Águas Livres, S.A.-EPAL, 1250-144 Lisboa, Portugal.
Laboratório de Bromatologia e Qualidade da Água, Faculdade de Farmácia da Universidade de Lisboa, 1649-003 Lisboa, Portugal.
Molecules. 2024 Sep 18;29(18):4426. doi: 10.3390/molecules29184426.
Microplastics (MPs) contribute to the overall pollution of water sources, affecting not only aquatic ecosystems but also water for human consumption (WHC). Currently, there needs to be a global consensus on safe levels of microplastics in WHC, which will allow regulatory efforts and risk assessments to be carried out. Therefore, this study aims to characterize MP particles in WHC of the Lisbon water supply system (LWSS) and compare two approaches to quantify these particles (length and width of the particles, and the area equivalent diameter (AED) of the particles). The quantification of MP particles was made via micro-FTIR (Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy) on transmission mode after water filtration on 5 µm silicon filters. Thirty-eight WHC samples from the LWSS showed MPs up to 836 MPs/L, with an average value of 196 MPs/L. The most representative polymer was polyethylene (PE, 77.2%). The other eight polymers were also quantified. The length and width of MPs ranged between 84 µm and 41 µm, respectively. The AED of MPs ranged between 24 µm and 405 µm. The MP dimensions of both approaches can differ significantly.
微塑料（MPs）导致了水源的整体污染，不仅影响水生生态系统，也影响人类饮用水（WHC）。目前，全球需要就 WHC 中的微塑料安全水平达成共识，这将使监管工作和风险评估得以开展。因此，本研究旨在对里斯本供水系统（LWSS）的 WHC 中的 MP 颗粒进行特征描述，并比较两种定量这些颗粒的方法（颗粒的长度和宽度，以及颗粒的等效面积直径（AED））。通过在 5 µm 硅过滤器上进行水过滤后，以透射模式对微傅里叶变换红外光谱（FTIR）进行 MP 颗粒的定量。来自 LWSS 的 38 个 WHC 样本显示，MPs 高达 836 MPs/L，平均值为 196 MPs/L。最具代表性的聚合物是聚乙烯（PE，77.2%）。还对其他八种聚合物进行了定量分析。MPs 的长度和宽度分别在 84 µm 和 41 µm 之间。 MPs 的 AED 在 24 µm 到 405 µm 之间。这两种方法的 MP 尺寸可能存在显著差异。
