• DOI:10.1021/acs.est.1c06768
• Corpus ID: 248263169

Common Single-Use Consumer Plastic Products Release Trillions of Sub-100 nm Nanoparticles per Liter into Water during Normal Use.

@article{Zangmeister2022CommonSC,
  title={Common Single-Use Consumer Plastic Products Release Trillions of Sub-100 nm Nanoparticles per Liter into Water during Normal Use.},
  author={Christopher D. Zangmeister and James G. Radney and Kurt D. Benkstein and Berc Kalanyan},
  journal={Environmental science \& technology},
  year={2022}
}

• C. Zangmeister, J. Radney, +1 author Berc Kalanyan
• Published 20 April 2022
• Engineering
• Environmental science & technology

This study demonstrates that commonly used consumer products such as single-use food grade nylon bags and hot beverage cups lined with low-density polyethylene release nanometer-sized plastic particles at number densities >1012 L-1 when exposed to water. The number of particles released was a function of the initial water temperature (high temperature vs ambient) for each of the tested materials. Mean particle diameters were between 30 and 80 nm with few particles >200 nm. The number of particles released into hot water from food grade nylon was 7 times higher when compared to single-use beverage cups. On a particle number density basis, particles released into water from a single 300 mL hot beverage cup equate to one particle for every seven cells in the human body in a size range available for cellular uptake.