Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

  • Comment
  • Published:

Things we know and don’t know about nanoplastic in the environment

Nature Nanotechnology volume 14, pages 300–301 (2019)Cite this article

Subjects

Fragments of plastic smaller than 1 μm have raised concerns about the potential risks they pose to the environment. Research will have to answer a number of questions to establish what the realistic risks are.

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution

Relevant articles

Open Access articles citing this article.

Access options

Buy this article

  • Purchase on Springer Link
  • Instant access to full article PDF
Buy now

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

References

  1. Colton, J. B., Knapp, F. D. & Burns, B. R. Science 185, 491–497 (1974).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  2. Carpenter, E. J. & Smith, K. L. Science 175, 1240–1241 (1972).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  3. Cole, M., Lindeque, P., Halsband, C. & Galloway, T. S. Mar. Pollut. Bull. 62, 2588–2597 (2011).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  4. Thompson, R. C. Science 304, 838–838 (2004).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  5. Jambeck, J. R. et al. Science 347, 768–771 (2015).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  6. Schmidt, C., Krauth, T. & Wagner, S. Environ. Sci. Technol. 51, 12246–12253 (2017).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  7. Rillig, M. C. Environ. Sci. Technol. 46, 6453–6454 (2012).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  8. Kay, P. et al. Wastewater treatment plants as a source of microplastics in river catchments. Environ. Sci. Pollut. Res. 25, 1–4 (2018).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  9. Baldwin, A. K., Corsi, S. R. & Mason, S. A. Environ. Sci. Technol. 50, 10377–10385 (2016).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  10. Eriksen, M. et al. Mar. Pollut. Bull. 77, 177–182 (2013).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  11. Koelmans, A. A., Bakir, A., Burton, G. A. & Janssen, C. R. Environ. Sci. Technol. 50, 3315–3326 (2016).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  12. Adam, V., Yang, T. & Nowack, B. Environ. Toxicol. Chem. 38, 436–447 (2019).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  13. Triebskorn, R. et al. Trends Anal. Chem. 110, 375–392 (2019).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  14. Gigault, J., Pedrono, B., Maxit, B. & Ter Halle, A. Environ. Sci. Nano 3, 346–350 (2016).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  15. Lambert, S. & Wagner, M. Chemosphere 145, 265–268 (2016).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  16. Lambert, S., Sinclair, C. J., Bradley, E. L. & Boxall, A. B. A. Sci. Total Environ. 447, 225–234 (2013).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  17. Koelmans, A. A., Besseling, E. & Shim, W. J. in Marine Anthropogenic Litter (eds Bergmann, M. et al.) 325–340 (Springer, 2015).

  18. Hernandez, L. M., Yousefi, N. & Tufenkji, N. Environ. Sci. Technol. Lett. 4, 280–285 (2017).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  19. Hüffer, T., Praetorius, A., Wagner, S., von der Kammer, F. & Hofmann, T. Environ. Sci. Technol. 51, 2499–2507 (2017).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  20. Ter Halle, A. et al. Environ. Sci. Technol. 51, 13689–13697 (2017).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  21. Jungnickel, H. et al. Sci. Total Environ. 563–564, 261–266 (2016).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  22. Gigault, J., Baudrimont, M. & Pascal, P. Environ. Pollut. 235, 1030–1034 (2018).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  23. Besseling, E., Redondo-Hasselerharm, P., Foekema, E. M. & Koelmans, A. A. Crit. Rev. Environ. Sci. Technol. 3389, 1–49 (2018).

    Google Scholar 

  24. Song, Y. K. et al. Environ. Sci. Technol. 51, 4368–4376 (2017).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  25. Stephens, B., Azimi, P., El Orch, Z. & Ramos, T. Atmos. Environ. 79, 334–339 (2013).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  26. Jahnke, A. et al. Environ. Sci. Technol. Lett. 4, 85–90 (2017).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  27. ter Halle, A. et al. Environ. Pollut. 227, 167–174 (2017).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  28. Brandon, J., Goldstein, M. & Ohman, M. D. Mar. Pollut. Bull. 110, 299–308 (2016).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  29. Hassan, P., Rana, R. & Verma, G. Langmuir 31, 3–12 (2015).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  30. Hotze, E. M., Phenrat, T. & Lowry, G. V. J. Environ. Qual. 39, 1909–1924 (2010).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  31. Oriekhova, O. & Stoll, S. Environ. Sci. Nano 5, 792–799 (2018).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  32. Besseling, E., Quik, J. T. K., Sun, M. & Koelmans, A. A. Environ. Pollut. 220(PtA), 540–548 (2017).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Helmholtz-Centre for Environmental Research—UFZ, Department of Analytical Chemistry, Leipzig, Germany

    Stephan Wagner & Thorsten Reemtsma

Authors
  1. Stephan Wagner
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Thorsten Reemtsma
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Stephan Wagner.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Wagner, S., Reemtsma, T. Things we know and don’t know about nanoplastic in the environment. Nat. Nanotechnol. 14, 300–301 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41565-019-0424-z

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41565-019-0424-z

This article is cited by

Search

Advanced search

Quick links

Nature Briefing

Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.

Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox. Sign up for Nature Briefing