A citizen science approach estimating titanium dioxide released from personal care products

PLoS One. 2020 Jul 29;15(7):e0235988. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0235988. eCollection 2020.

Abstract

Titanium dioxide (TiO2) is a common component in personal care products (PCP), which through use enters the wastewater treatment plant (WWTP) and ultimately the environment. A citizen science approach is utilized here to inform the prevalence and usage of TiO2 containing PCP on a household scale, which generates information as to the quantity of TiO2 entering the WWTP, and the portion ultimately discharged to the environment. Meanwhile, citizen science sourced inventories were generated to estimate the quantity of TiO2, and potentially nanoscale TiO2 entering the WWTP from consumer products and to determine which products had the greatest contribution. The estimated values were compared with water samples from the WWTP which quantified the amount of total titanium present using ICP-AES. These values were at a similar level with other top-down estimation approaches and suggest that a citizen science approach is valid to estimate the loading of TiO2, and potentially other emerging contaminants, while at the same time engaging with community stakeholders.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't
  • Research Support, U.S. Gov't, Non-P.H.S.

MeSH terms

  • Citizen Science / methods*
  • Cosmetics / analysis*
  • Humans
  • Nanoparticles / analysis*
  • Titanium / analysis*
  • Wastewater / chemistry*
  • Water Pollutants, Chemical / analysis*

Substances

  • Cosmetics
  • Waste Water
  • Water Pollutants, Chemical
  • titanium dioxide
  • Titanium

Grants and funding

This work is supported by the National Science Foundation (NSF #1743891) and Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation.