Additives, plasticizers, small microplastics (<100 μm), and other microlitter components in the gastrointestinal tract of commercial teleost fish: Method of extraction, purification, quantification, and characterization using Micro-FTIR

Fabiana Corami; Beatrice Rosso; Andrea Augusto Sfriso; Andrea Gambaro; Michele Mistri; Cristina Munari; Carlo Barbante

doi:10.1016/j.marpolbul.2022.113477

Additives, plasticizers, small microplastics (<100 μm), and other microlitter components in the gastrointestinal tract of commercial teleost fish: Method of extraction, purification, quantification, and characterization using Micro-FTIR

Mar Pollut Bull. 2022 Apr:177:113477. doi: 10.1016/j.marpolbul.2022.113477. Epub 2022 Mar 8.

Authors

Fabiana Corami¹, Beatrice Rosso², Andrea Augusto Sfriso³, Andrea Gambaro⁴, Michele Mistri⁵, Cristina Munari⁶, Carlo Barbante⁷

Affiliations

¹ Institute of Polar Sciences, CNR-ISP, Campus Scientifico - Ca' Foscari University of Venice, Via Torino, 155, 30172 Venezia-Mestre, Italy; Department of Environmental Sciences, Informatics, and Statistics, Ca' Foscari University of Venice, Via Torino, 155, 30172 Venezia-Mestre, Italy. Electronic address: fabiana.corami@cnr.it.
² Department of Environmental Sciences, Informatics, and Statistics, Ca' Foscari University of Venice, Via Torino, 155, 30172 Venezia-Mestre, Italy. Electronic address: beatrice.rosso@unive.it.
³ Department of Chemical, Pharmaceutical, and Agricultural Sciences, University of Ferrara, Via Fossato di Mortara 17, 44121 Ferrara, Italy.
⁴ Institute of Polar Sciences, CNR-ISP, Campus Scientifico - Ca' Foscari University of Venice, Via Torino, 155, 30172 Venezia-Mestre, Italy; Department of Environmental Sciences, Informatics, and Statistics, Ca' Foscari University of Venice, Via Torino, 155, 30172 Venezia-Mestre, Italy. Electronic address: gambaro@unive.it.
⁵ Department of Chemical, Pharmaceutical, and Agricultural Sciences, University of Ferrara, Via Fossato di Mortara 17, 44121 Ferrara, Italy. Electronic address: msm@unife.it.
⁶ Department of Chemical, Pharmaceutical, and Agricultural Sciences, University of Ferrara, Via Fossato di Mortara 17, 44121 Ferrara, Italy. Electronic address: mnc@unife.it.
⁷ Institute of Polar Sciences, CNR-ISP, Campus Scientifico - Ca' Foscari University of Venice, Via Torino, 155, 30172 Venezia-Mestre, Italy; Department of Environmental Sciences, Informatics, and Statistics, Ca' Foscari University of Venice, Via Torino, 155, 30172 Venezia-Mestre, Italy. Electronic address: barbante@unive.it.

PMID: 35277272
DOI: 10.1016/j.marpolbul.2022.113477

Abstract

One of the aims of this study is the development of a pretreatment method for additives, plasticizers and other components of micro-litter (APFs), and small microplastics (SMPs <100 μm) in the gastrointestinal tract (GIT) of five of the most widely distributed and consumed commercial fish species, Engraulis encrasiculos, Sardina pilchardus, Mullus surmuletus, Solea solea, and Sparus aurata. The second aim was to develop a simultaneous quantification and identification method via Micro-FTIR of APFs and SMPs ingested by these commercial fish species. The distribution of SMPs and APFs is characteristically different for each species investigated. E. encrasiculos and S. pilchardus had a higher weight of SMPs than the other species investigated. Regarding APFs, the highest abundance was observed in E. encrasiculos. This study highlights the importance of studying additives and plasticizers that can be used as efficient proxies of microplastics, as shown by the presence of vulcanizing agents such as Vanax®.

Keywords: Commercial fish; Ingested plastic; Micro-FTIR; Microplastics trophic transfer; Small microplastics.

MeSH terms

Animals
Environmental Monitoring / methods
Fishes
Gastrointestinal Tract / chemistry
Microplastics
Plasticizers
Plastics
Sea Bream*
Spectroscopy, Fourier Transform Infrared
Water Pollutants, Chemical* / analysis

Substances

Microplastics
Plasticizers
Plastics
Water Pollutants, Chemical