New publication: Balancing new approaches and harmonized techniques in nano- and microplastics research
I recently lead a virtual issue across ACS journals to assess how we can balance innovative new approaches with standardized methodologies for microplastics and nanoplastics research.
Balancing new approaches and harmonized techniques in nano- and microplastics research. Denise M. Mitrano, Miriam L. Diamond, Jae-Hong Kim, Kam Chiu Tam, Min Yang, and Zhanyun Wang Environ. Sci. Technol. Lett. 2023, 10, 8, 618-621 external page Read the full text here
Abstract:
The ubiquitous presence of microplastics, nanoplastics and plastic-additive chemicals in our air, water and soil is now widely recognized. The complexities of the different plastics polymers, additives used, particle morphologies, surface chemistries, and susceptibility to weathering all contribute to the way in which these pollutants behave in the environment both in terms of fate and transport and interactions with organisms. This has led to a complex array of various methodologies to extract, identify and quantify plastics from diverse environmental matrices. While exploration of new approaches (both analytical and experimental) is beneficial for the variety of research objectives in the field, this needs to be balanced with harmonized materials, methods and experimental designs which can underpin environmental data on fate and exposure, in order to fully understand the environmental impacts of microplastics and nanoplastics. These harmonized approaches could pave the way for more standardized testing and monitoring of microplastics and nanoplastics in the future, especially outside of the academic realm.
Unified by the goal of placing new approaches versus harmonization into better context, this virtual issue brings together a diversity of published studies in microplastics research from the past 5 years across the ES&T portfolio of journals (ES&T, ES&T Letters, ACS ES&T Engineering, ACS ES&T Water) and ACS Sustainable Chemistry & Engineering, with a focus on potential best practices and ultimately harmonization to enable us to more confidently benchmark microplastics and nanoplastics pollution globally. Chosen by our team of associate editors and topic editors working with these journals, these papers may assist researchers working towards developing procedures for sampling, exposure, and robust and quantitative microplastics analysis and characterization across all environmental compartments. We hope you enjoy this curated selection of articles.