The production and use of plastic over many decades has resulted in its accumulation in the world’s oceans. Plastic debris poses a range of potential risks to the marine environment and its biota. Especially, the potential hazards of small plastic debris and chemicals associated with plastic have not been extensively studied. When buoyant plastic is exposed to ultraviolet radiation, it will slowly degrade and leach chemicals into surrounding waters. These leachates can include additives, sorbed organic pollutants, and degradation products of the plastic polymers. While most hazard assessments have focused on studying adverse effects due to the uptake of plastic, toxicity studies of the leachates of plastics are less common. To begin to address this knowledge gap, we studied the acute toxicity of leachates from diverse plastics in the harpacticoid copepod Nitocra spinipes. Our results show that leachates caused a higher toxicity after plastic was exposed to ultraviolet light compared to leaching in darkness. We observed differences in toxicity for different polymer types: polyvinyl chloride and polypropylene resulted in the most toxic leachates, while polystyrene and poly[ethylene terephthalate] were least toxic. Furthermore, we observed increased toxicity of leachates from some plastics that had been weathered in the real marine environment compared to matching new materials. Our results indicate that both weathering condition and polymer type influence the toxicity of plastic leachates.

中文翻译：

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塑料浸出液毒性的变化与风化和聚合物类型的关系：pe足类Nitocra尖刺的筛选研究

几十年来，塑料的生产和使用已导致其在世界海洋中的积累。塑料碎片对海洋环境及其生物区系构成一系列潜在风险。尤其是，尚未广泛研究小塑料碎片和与塑料有关的化学物质的潜在危害。当漂浮的塑料暴露在紫外线辐射下时，它将缓慢降解并将化学物质浸入周围的水中。这些渗滤液可包括添加剂，吸附的有机污染物和塑料聚合物的降解产物。尽管大多数危害评估都集中在研究由于摄入塑料引起的不利影响，但对塑料渗滤液的毒性研究却很少见。为了解决这一知识鸿沟，尼托克拉的小刺。我们的结果表明，与在黑暗中浸出相比，塑料在暴露于紫外线下后，沥出液具有更高的毒性。我们观察到了不同聚合物类型的毒性差异：聚氯乙烯和聚丙烯产生的毒性最高，而聚苯乙烯和聚对苯二甲酸乙二醇酯的毒性最低。此外，我们发现，与匹配的新材料相比，在实际海洋环境中风化的某些塑料中沥出液的毒性增加。我们的结果表明，风化条件和聚合物类型都会影响塑料渗滤液的毒性。