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ENVIRONMENTAL NANOTECHNOLOGY

Proxies for nanoplastic

Nature Nanotechnology volume 14, pages 307–308 (2019)Cite this article

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The ability to synthesize metal-doped nanoplastic opens windows to accurately assess the potential environmental hazards that nanoplastic poses.

Nanoplastic is one of the least studied types of marine litter but potentially one of the most hazardous. This is one of the main outcomes of a recent report1 provided by an expert group advising the European Commission — the Science Advice for Policy by European Academies (SAPEA). The hazard relates to observations that exposure to high doses of nanoplastics causes them to be taken up in the gut of animals by endocytosis or phagocytosis, taken up into the circulatory system of molluscs or taken up in fish1,2,3,4. In our environment, nanoplastic is predominantly formed by fragmentation of larger plastic debris, which means that number concentrations are expected to be high. A probably much smaller fraction of nanoplastic occurring in the environment originated as an added component in some products, for instance those used in facial cleansers5.

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Fig. 1: Potential use of metal-doped plastic nanoparticles for environmental risk assessment of nanoplastics.

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  1. Aquatic Ecology and Water Quality Management Group, Wageningen University and Research, Wageningen, The Netherlands

    Albert A. Koelmans

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  1. Albert A. Koelmans
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Correspondence to Albert A. Koelmans.

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Koelmans, A.A. Proxies for nanoplastic. Nat. Nanotechnol. 14, 307–308 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41565-019-0416-z

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