The Role of Humic Acids on the Effects of Nanoplastics in Fish

Abstract

Plastics materials rarely biodegrade, instead, through different biotic and abiotic processes, they fragment into smaller microplastics (<5 mm, MPs), which have already been reported as ubiquitous pollutants in marine environments worldwide, as well as in a wide range of marine organisms [1]. Nanoplastics (NPs), the smaller than 100/1000 nm fraction of plastic fragments, are currently under focus of intense study, from multiple different perspectives. The present understanding of their occurrence, appropriate sampling techniques, physicochemical characteristics, and effects on biota is still considered scarce. In 2017, the estimated total amount plastic produced in the world was approximately 8300 million tonnes [2], from which between 1.15–2.41 million tonnes are estimated to reach the oceans as plastic waste, each year [3]. If we were to estimate de amount of MPs and NPs that might we produced as a consequence of the degradation of these average 2 million tons, the numbers of plastic particles rise exponentially.