Quantitative Assessment of Full Size Microplastics in Bottled and Tap Water Samples in Hong Kong

Yuet-Tung Tse, Sidney Man-Ngai Chan () and Eric Tung-Po Sze ()
Additional contact information
Yuet-Tung Tse: School of Science and Technology, Hong Kong Metropolitan University, Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, Hong Kong, China
Sidney Man-Ngai Chan: School of Science and Technology, Hong Kong Metropolitan University, Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, Hong Kong, China
Eric Tung-Po Sze: School of Science and Technology, Hong Kong Metropolitan University, Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, Hong Kong, China

IJERPH, 2022, vol. 19, issue 20, 1-14

Abstract: Human exposure to microplastics (MPs) through drinking water has drawn serious concern recently because of the potential adverse health effects. Although there are reports on the occurrence of MPs in bottled water, little is known about the abundance of a whole spectrum of MPs with sizes ranging from 1 µm to 5 mm due to the restrictions of conventional MPs detection methods. Some studies using micro-Raman spectroscopy can achieve MPs with a size of <10 µm, however, quantitation of all MPs was extremely time consuming and only a small portion (<10%) of MPs would be analyzed. The present study quantified MPs from nine brands of bottled water using fluorescence microscopy and flow cytometry for MPs with a size of ≥50 µm and a size of <50 µm, respectively. The average abundance of MPs with a size of ≥50 µm in bottled water samples was found ranging from 8–50 particles L −1 , while MPs with a size of <50 µm were found to be 1570–17,817 particles L −1 , where the MPs abundance from mineral water samples were significantly more than distilled and spring water samples. The modal size and shape of MPs were found at 1 µm and fragments, respectively. Besides, three tap water samples obtained locally were analyzed and compared with the bottled water samples, where less MPs were found in tap water samples. In addition, contamination of MPs from bottle and cap and interference by addition of mineral salts were studied, where no significant difference from all these processes to the control sample was found, suggesting the major contamination of MPs was from other manufacturing processes. Estimated daily intake (EDI) of MPs increased substantially when data of small MPs are included, suggesting that previously reports on exposure of MPs from drinking water might be underestimated, as only large MPs were considered.

Keywords: microplastics; bottled water; tap water; flow cytometry; Nile red fluorescence staining; visual identification; microplastics size distribution (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/19/20/13432/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/19/20/13432/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:19:y:2022:i:20:p:13432-:d:945345

Access Statistics for this article

IJERPH is currently edited by Ms. Jenna Liu

More articles in IJERPH from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().