Toxicity of polyethylene microplastics (PE-MP) of size ranges similar to their natural food to zooplanktonic organisms representative of the main taxa present in marine plankton, including rotifers, copepods, bivalves, echinoderms and fish, was evaluated. Early life stages (ELS) were prioritized as testing models in order to maximize sensitivity. Treatments included particles spiked with benzophenone-3 (BP-3), a hydrophobic organic chemical used in cosmetics with direct input in coastal areas. Despite documented ingestion of both virgin and BP-3 spiked microplastics no acute toxicity was found at loads orders of magnitude above environmentally relevant concentrations on any of the invertebrate models. In fish tests some effects, including premature or reduced hatching, were observed after 12 d exposure at 10 mg L^-1 of BP-3 spiked PE-MP. The results obtained do not support environmentally relevant risk of microplastics on marine zooplankton. Similar approaches testing more hydrophobic chemicals with higher acute toxicity are needed before these conclusions could be extended to other organic pollutants common in marine ecosystems. Therefore, the replacement of these polymers in consumer products must be carefully considered.

评估了聚乙烯微塑料（PE-MP）的大小范围，类似于其天然食品对代表浮游生物（包括轮虫，co足类，双壳类，棘皮动物和鱼类）的浮游生物的浮游生物的毒性。优先考虑早期生命阶段（ELS）作为测试模型，以最大程度地提高灵敏度。处理包括掺有苯甲酮3（BP-3）的颗粒，苯甲酮3（BP-3）是一种用于化妆品的疏水性有机化学品，可直接在沿海地区投入。尽管有文献记录了原始蛋白和BP-3加标微塑料的摄入，但在任何无脊椎动物模型上，在高于环境相关浓度的数量级负荷下均未发现急性毒性。在鱼的试验中，在10 mg L ^-1暴露12 d后观察到一些影响，包括过早或孵化减少BP-3加标的PE-MP。获得的结果不支持海洋浮游动物上与塑料相关的环境风险。在将这些结论推广到海洋生态系统中常见的其他有机污染物之前，需要采取类似的方法来测试具有更高急性毒性的疏水性化学品。因此，必须仔细考虑在消费产品中替代这些聚合物。