From December 2017 to July this year, the Taiwan Environmental Protection Agency investigated the content of plastic particles in 89 tap water purification plants, seven breeding areas, two seawater baths, tap water, sand beach gravel, and shellfish. .
According to the latest survey released on the 25th, most samples contain seawater, tap water, beach and shellfish.
The identification results show that the materials of these miniature plastics are mainly PP, PE, PS, and the sources are mostly common plastic products, such as PET bottles, plastic bags, bottle caps, straws, plastic beverage cups and various man-made fiber products. After staying in the environment for thousands of years, the Taiwan Environmental Protection Agency reminded that it is necessary to start from the source of plastic waste.
First, the latest findings
The latest survey results of Taiwan's plastic particles on the 25th are:
The plastics detected in tap water are all fibrous, 0 to 6 per liter, which is much lower than the detection volume of bottled water;
The number of micro-plastics in seawater is between 1,000 and 18,500 per 1,000 liters;
Beach gravel is 26 to 2400 per kilogram;
Cultured and wild shellfish are 0.2 to 5.2 per gram.
1, the fiber content of tap water is much lower than bottled water
Yang Xi-nan, head of the Environmental Protection Agency of the Environmental Protection Agency, said that in the tap water section, a total of 100 clear water and 23 raw water samples were made. From the results, the concentration is not far from the international, and the plastic particles are mainly fiber. Most of them, PET, Nylon, PE accounted for 85% of the top three ingredients.
Of the 100 clean water samples of tap water, 44 were found to have plastic particles, 0 to 6 fibers per liter, and 14 of the original water were detected, with an average of 0 to 8 plastic fibers per liter. Taiwan Water Company General Manager Wu Zhenrong said that such values are not only lower than the international literature, but also much lower than bottled water.
Therefore, it is recommended that the public should try to use tap water and reduce the packaging of bottled water as a source of pollution. Beishui also stressed that it has recently set up drinking fountains in the Greater Taipei area, and installed guidelines to encourage people to install tap water and use less bottled water.
OrbMedia commissioned a survey commissioned by the State University of New York at the University of Freedonia in March this year, pointing out that as many as 93% of the world's ten brands of bottled water, there are plastic particles, and even a liter of a liter containing tens of thousands of people.
2, seafood contains micro-particles, wild oysters are higher than culture
In the seven shellfish culture zones, the marine environment of two beaches is sampled, and the part of the seawater shows foaming, film, granules, debris, fiber type, and more diverse colors. Material PP, PE, PS-based, accounting for 77.6%, the same as international. Sand beach gravel shows no difference in the number and composition of plastic particles in different depths, mainly PE, PP, PS accounted for 74.7%.
In the survey of cultured and wild shellfish, mussels, oysters, scallops, and oysters have found plastic particles. One gram of mussels contains 1.2 to 2, oysters are 0.7 to 5.2 in one gram, and 0.2 to 3.5 in aquaculture. There are 3.1 scallops and 0.2 gram of scorpion. Because of the shellfish and filter feeding, the plastic particles are mainly fibrous, and the material is PP, PE, PET, Nylon, which accounts for 92.7%.
This value is about the middle of the average compared with the average of the scientific literature. Yang Xi-nan pointed out that the data show that the content of cultured shellfish in China is 2.1 to 10.5; the European mussels are 0.26 to 0.51 in Belgium, and 0.36 in Germany. , Beihai 0.2 to 0.3. French cultured oysters also have 0.47 plastic particles.
Face shellfish contain plastic particles also should not eat questioning, Yang Yoshio said that at present the United Nations said that as these shellfish are rich in nutrients, it is recommended to eat, but did not complete all countries associated health risk assessment, food intake on the health impact, is still unknown.
two, Harm of plastic particles
These plastic particles fear through the food chain, eventually returned to the body, but the actual health risk assessment and safety standards allow, currently the world have not released specific research.
In recent years, the problem of plastic particle pollution has received international attention. More research has pointed out that pollution does not end in the marine environment. In many countries, plastic particles are found in fresh water, land, and even in the North and South. In September 2017, the non-profit media "OrbMedia" survey reported that the world Of the 159 tap water samples in more than 10 countries, 83% detected plastic particles.
These plastic particles, which are less than 5mm in size, are more likely to be ingested by organisms, so the damage to living things is higher than that of large plastic fragments. Scientists have discovered that micro-plastics have formed a "plastic biosphere" - an emerging creature. Type.