Page - 25 - in Freshwater Microplastics - Emerging Environmental Contaminants?

AquaticEcotoxicity ofMicroplastics andNanoplastics:LessonsLearned from EngineeredNanomaterials SinjaRist andNannaBlochHartmann Abstract Thewidespreadoccurrenceofmicroplastics in the aquatic environment is well documented through international surveys and scientific studies. Further degradation and fragmentation, resulting in the formation of nanosized plastic particles – nanoplastics – has been highlighted as a potentially important issue. In the environment, bothmicroplastics and nanoplasticsmay have direct ecotoxico- logical effects, aswell asvectoreffects through theadsorptionofco-contaminants. Plastic additives andmonomersmayalsobe released fromthepolymermatrix and cause adverse effects on aquatic organisms.Although limited information regard- ing the ecotoxicological effects of nano- andmicroplastics is available at present, their small sizegives rise toconcernwith respect to theadverseeffectsanddisloca- tion of these particles inside organisms – similar to issues often discussed for engineered nanomaterials. In the same way, transport of co-contaminants and leaching of soluble substances are much debated issues with respect to the ecotoxicologyof nanomaterials. In this chapter,wedrawonexistingknowledge from thefieldof ecotoxicology of engineered nanomaterials to discuss potential ecotoxicological effects of nano- andmicroplastics.We discuss the similarities and differences between nano- and microplastics and engineered nanomaterials with regard to both potential effects and expectedbehaviour in aquaticmedia.Oneof the key challenges in ecotoxico- logyofnanomaterials hasbeen theapplicabilityof current testmethods, originally intended for soluble chemicals, to the testing of particle suspensions. This often requires test modifications and special attention to physical chemical character- isation and data interpretation. We present an overview of lessons learned from This chapter has been externally peer-reviewed. S.Rist (*) andN.B.Hartmann Department ofEnvironmentalEngineering,TechnicalUniversity ofDenmark, 2800Kongens Lyngby,Denmark e-mail: siri@env.dtu.dk M.Wagner, S.Lambert (eds.),FreshwaterMicroplastics, HdbEnvChem58,DOI10.1007/978-3-319-61615-5_2, ©TheAuthor(s) 2018 25