@inproceedings{8754238,
  abstract     = {{Recent studies described the occurrence of microplastics in nearly all environmental aquatic matrices. As expected, microplastics have also entered the food chain and can be ingested by humans via food and beverages such as salt, beer, drinking water and fruits. The purpose of this study was the identification of microplastics in large volumes of tap water that were derived from the purification of ground water, surface water or purified wastewater effluents in a densely populated region in western Europe, i.e. Flanders (Belgium). The samples were collected across Flanders at two different places in the supply chain: (1) purified water from drinking water treatment plants and (2) drinking water from conventional household taps. To identify potential microplastics, Fourier transform infrared microscopy was performed which enabled the identification of microplastic particles down to a size of 25 µm. A rescaling of the concentrations, based on a published method, was performed to enable the calculation of the microplastic concentration in the default microplastic range (1µm-5,000µm). An average of 0.02 ± 0.03 microplastics (>25µm) per liter (ranging between 0 and 0.06 microplastics per liter) was found in the samples taken in the water production centers. In three different water treatment plants – Essen, Egenhove and Gavers – no microplastic particles were found. Polypropylene is most commonly found polymer type after purification of the source water. Relating microplastic concentrations to the origin of the water (surface water, ground water and purified waste water), we observed that drinking water produced from
groundwater did not contain microplastics in our samples. The drinking water from waste water effluents contains on average more microplastics (0.05 ± 0.02 MP/L) than that from surface water (0.02 ± 0.02 MP/L). However there is no significant difference in microplastic contamination according to the source of the water (p = 0.08). More data should be collected to confirm these results. It is not (yet) possible to assess potential risks of microplastics ingestion for human health as no epidemiological or other relevant studies on the effects of ingested microplastics have been published. More research is necessary to calculate a Derived No Effect Level (DNEL) for risk assessment of microplastic intake for human health}},
  author       = {{Vercauteren, Maaike and Semmouri, Ilias and Van Acker, Emmanuel and Pequeur, Emmy and Asselman, Jana and Janssen, Colin}},
  booktitle    = {{SETAC Europe, 32nd Annual Meeting, Abstracts}},
  keywords     = {{Microplastics,Drinking water,Human health}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  location     = {{Copenhagen, Denmark + online}},
  title        = {{Microplastic pollution in drinking water in Flanders}},
  year         = {{2022}},
}