Microplastics – Colonization by Human Microbial Pathogens Quantified

The abstract of a September 1, 2022 Environmental Pollution article https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envpol.2022.119594 by researchers with UK University of Stirling and Germany Brandenburg Medical School Theodor Fontane reports that “… Microplastics in wastewater and surface water rapidly become colonised by microbial biofilm … Here, we have used rotavirus (RV) SA11 (a non-enveloped enteric virus) and the enveloped bacteriophage Phi6 as model viruses to quantify binding and recovery from biofilm-colonised microplastic pellets in three different water treatments (filtered and non-filtered surface water, and surface water with added nutrients). Viruses associated with biofilm-colonised pellets were more stable compared to those remaining in the water … Although our results suggest that the presence of an envelope may limit virus interaction with the plastisphere, the ability to recover both enveloped and non-enveloped infectious viruses from colonised microplastic pellets highlights an additional potential public health risk of surface waters becoming contaminated with microplastics, and subsequent human exposure to microplastics in the environment …” #PlasticWaste #Microplastics #SingleUsePlastic @MHB_Fontane @StirUni