Occurrence of organic pollutants in plastics on beach: Stranded foams can be sources of pollutants in islands

Xingpei Cao; Li Wang; Ying Zhang; Yi Li; Chunyou Zhu; Xiaobo Zheng; Yuxin Sun; Daning Li; Ling Mo; Bixian Mai

doi:10.1016/j.scitotenv.2019.136119

Occurrence of organic pollutants in plastics on beach: Stranded foams can be sources of pollutants in islands

Sci Total Environ. 2020 Mar 10:707:136119. doi: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2019.136119. Epub 2019 Dec 14.

Authors

Xingpei Cao¹, Li Wang¹, Ying Zhang², Yi Li², Chunyou Zhu³, Xiaobo Zheng⁴, Yuxin Sun⁵, Daning Li⁵, Ling Mo⁶, Bixian Mai³

Affiliations

¹ College of Resources and Environment, South China Agricultural University, Guangzhou 510642, China.
² Scientific Institute of Pearl River Water Resources Protection, Monitoring Center of Pearl River Valley Aquatic Environment, Guangzhou 510611, China.
³ State Key Laboratory of Organic Geochemistry and Guangdong Key Laboratory of Environmental Protection and Resources Utilization, Guangzhou Institute of Geochemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Guangzhou 510640, China.
⁴ College of Resources and Environment, South China Agricultural University, Guangzhou 510642, China. Electronic address: zhengxiaobo@scau.edu.cn.
⁵ Key Laboratory of Tropical Marine Bio-resources and Ecology, Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Applied Marine Biology, South China Sea Institute of Oceanology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Guangzhou 510301, China.
⁶ Hainan Research Academy of Environmental Sciences, Haikou 510100, China.

PMID: 31869616
DOI: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2019.136119

Abstract

Increasing amount of plastic debris stranded on beach can introduce many foreign substances, including organic pollutants into island ecosystems. In the present study, stranded foams were collected from an island located in South China Sea, to investigate the levels and profiles of several flame retardants (FRs) and plasticizers, including polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs), organophosphate esters (OPEs), emerging brominated FRs, and dechlorane plus (DP). The concentrations of PBDEs and OPEs in plastic debris ranged from not detected (ND, <0.60 ng/g) to 0.46 mg/g and from ND (<0.70 ng/g) to 17.3 mg/g, respectively. The high levels of PBDEs and OPEs were expected as the fact that PBDEs and OPEs were incorporated additives in plastics. OPEs were the main chemicals in most of foams. Brominated FRs dominated in some samples. Core and surface parts in foams had similar composition profiles of pollutants. Significantly higher concentrations of tris(2-chloroethyl) phosphate (TCEP) and triphenyl phosphate (TPHP) were observed in surface samples than core samples (p < .05). TCEP and TPHP in foam surface seem to be from both incorporated additives and adsorbed chemicals from environmental matrices. The density of pollutants introduced by stranded foams in sampling area was estimated in comparison with air deposition of pollutants. The high loading of pollutants in stranded foams indicates that foams can be potential sources for organic pollutants, especially incorporated plastic additives, in islands.

Keywords: Flame retardants; Foam; Island; Organophosphate esters; Plastic additive.