Chemical cocktail from plastics
Large-scale project P-LEACH investigates the release of additives in water
Plastic waste in rivers and oceans is constantly releasing chemicals into the water. Until now, it was unknown how large these quantities are and which substances are released particularly strongly. In the large-scale P-LEACH project, experts from four research institutes of the Helmholtz Association have now analyzed the composition and concentrations of many different substances. The main focus was on the question of how sun’s UV radiation increases the release of chemicals.
Hundreds of thousands of tons of plastic waste are floating in rivers and oceans. The impact of waves, sun’s UV radiation and salty seawater cause the plastic to gradually break down into smaller and smaller fragments and ultimately float in the oceans as tiny microplastic particles.
In numerous studies, researchers have investigated the extent to which marine animals ingest these particles and whether they become ill from them. Far less well researched to date is how the ingredients of various plastic products – including additives such as heavy metals, flame retardants, plasticizers, dyes and many other ingredients, that give plastic its versatile properties – affect marine life.
For this reason, more than 30 scientists joined forces two years ago in a major Helmholtz Association project to investigate in detail how quickly and to what extent plastic releases its additives into water – and to what extent these substances may harm marine life. The first project results with focus on chemical analysis of plastic ingredients have now been published in the „Journal of Hazardous Materials“.
The results were striking: considerably higher concentrations of metal ions were found in the water of UV-irradiated samples than in non-irradiated samples. The picture was more differentiated for the organic substances: some substances were also present in significantly higher concentrations in the UV-irradiated samples. For other organic molecules, however, concentrations were surprisingly low. „However, this is not an all-clear,“ says Dr. Frank Menger from the department Organic Environmental Chemistry, and first author of the research article. „We expect that these substances are also released from the plastic into the water, but then they are transformed into smaller organic compounds by UV light so that the original compounds are no longer directly detectable.“ (Source: Hereon Press Release)
Read the complete Hereon Press Release:
==> Chemical cocktail from plastics
==> Projekt P-LEACH
Menger, F., Römerscheid, M., Lips, S., Klein, O., Nabi, D., Gandrass, J., Joerss, H., Wendt-Potthoff, K., Bedulina, D., Zimmermann, T., Schmitt-Jansen, M., Huber, C., Böhme, A., Ulrich, N., Beck, A.J., Pröfrock, D., Achterberg, E.P., Jahnke, A., & Hildebrandt, L. (2024): Screening the release of chemicals and microplastic particles from diverse plastic consumer products into water under accelerated UV weathering conditions. Journal of Hazardous Materials, 135256, doi:10.1016/j.jhazmat.2024.135256
