Occurrence and risk associated with urban road-deposited microplastics

Beibei He; Chenhao Shi; Bocheng Chen; Hao Wu; Ashantha Goonetilleke; An Liu

doi:10.1016/j.jhazmat.2023.132012

Occurrence and risk associated with urban road-deposited microplastics

J Hazard Mater. 2023 Oct 5:459:132012. doi: 10.1016/j.jhazmat.2023.132012. Epub 2023 Jul 6.

Authors

Beibei He¹, Chenhao Shi¹, Bocheng Chen¹, Hao Wu¹, Ashantha Goonetilleke², An Liu³

Affiliations

¹ College of Chemistry and Environmental Engineering, Shenzhen University, Shenzhen 518060, China.
² Faculty of Engineering, School of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Queensland University of Technology (QUT), P.O. Box 2434, Brisbane, Qld 4001, Australia.
³ College of Chemistry and Environmental Engineering, Shenzhen University, Shenzhen 518060, China. Electronic address: liuan@szu.edu.cn.

PMID: 37467610
DOI: 10.1016/j.jhazmat.2023.132012

Abstract

An in-depth understanding of urban road-deposited MPs is important for the accurate prediction of the risk posed by MPs in different exposure scenarios. This study provides new insights into the intrinsic/extrinsic factors in terms of the variability of concentration and species in urban road-deposited MPs. The study results confirmed that a considerable abundance of road-deposited MPs can be identified with the average concentration ranging from 0.33 to 3.64 g m^-2. Land use types and sediment particle size are the important factors that contribute to MPs abundance. The majority of detected MPs including polyethylene (PE), polypropylene (PP), polystyrene (PS) and polyethylene terephthalate (PET) are mainly derived from anthropogenic activities in commercial and residential land uses while rubber MP particles in urban road surfaces are mainly derived from tyre wear. The significant correlation (p < 0.05) between MPs and fine dust particles (< 150 µm) indicated the high affinity of small dust particles for MPs. The risk scores from MPs varied greatly from 10 to 11,000 among the study sites, which indicated the significant spatial variation of potential environmental risks posed by road-deposited MPs. The hotspots of risks posed by MPs were in areas with a high fraction of industrial, commercial and residential land uses. Specifically, the highest risk from MPs was found in mixed industrial and residential areas.

Keywords: Emission sources; Environmental risks; Microplastics; Road dust.