Researchers at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) have analyzed a number of widely used products in order to better understand these tiny plastics. They found that when plastic products are exposed to hot water, they release billions of nano-particles per liter into the water.
NIST researchers have published “The important thing here is that there are plastic particles wherever we look. They are numerous trillions a liter. We do not know if they have any adverse effects on human or animal health. We have high hopes that ‘you exist,” said NIST chemist Christopher Zangmeister.
There are many different types of plastic, but they are all made of polymers, natural or man-made materials made of large molecules that are joined together. Scientists have found tiny particles in these large plastics in the ocean and in many other places. Researchers classify them into two groups: micro-nanoplastics.
Small plastics are generally considered to be less than 5 mm long and can be seen with the naked eye, while nanoplastics are less than one million meters (one micrometer) and many cannot even be detected by a standard microscope. Recent research has shown that certain consumer products that handle liquids or solids, such as polypropylene baby bottles (PP) and nylon plastic tea bags, release these plastic particles into the surrounding water.
In their study, NIST researchers looked at two types of commercial plastic products: food grade nylon bags, such as baking liners – clear plastic sheets placed in baking pans to create a fragile space that prevents moisture loss – and one-off use. cups of hot drinks, like cups of coffee. Soft drink cups are covered with polyethylene (LDPE), a soft plastic film commonly used as a line.
In order to analyze the nanoparticles extracted from these plastic products, researchers first decide how to obtain them. “Imagine you have a cup of water in a cup of coffee to go with it. It may contain billions of particles, and we will need to find out how we can get these nanoplastics. It’s like getting a needle from a haystack,” Zangmeister said. .
So he and his colleagues had to adopt a new approach. “We used the method of taking a cup of water, spraying it with a good mist, and drying the mist and whatever was left inside the solution,” said Zangmeister.
Researchers can also determine the chemical composition of nanoparticles by scanning and observing them using techniques known as electron microscopy scans, which capture high-resolution images using high-powered electron beams, and Fourier-transform infrared. spectroscopy, a method that captures the spectrum of infrared liquids, solids or liquids.
the researchers found that the average size of nanoparticles was between 30 nanometers and 80 nanometers, a few more than 200 nanometers. Additionally, the saturation of nanoparticles extracted from hot water with food grade nylon was seven times higher than that of a single cup.
The U.S. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) regulates plastics that affect the food we eat or the water we drink. The agency has standards and safety measures in place to determine what is safe. FDA researchers conduct rigorous testing of these plastics and estimate how much plastic weight is lost when exposed to hot water.
The findings of this study, combined with this in other types of analysis, will open up new research areas in the area going forward. “Many studies on this topic have been written to educate our fellow scientists. This paper will do both: educate scientists and do public works,” Zangmeister said.
Source Journal Reference: Christopher D. Zangmeister, James G. Radney, Kurt D. Benkstein, Berc Kalanyan. Common Single-Use Consumer Plastic Products Release Trillions of Sub-100 nm Nanoparticles per Liter into Water during Normal Use. Environmental Science & Technology, 2022; DOI: 10.1021/acs.est.1c06768
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