Despite the pollution induced by plastics become a well-known and documented problem, bringing many countries to adopt restrictions about their production, commercialization and use, the impact of another emerging category of synthetic polymers, represented by the Water-Soluble Polymers (WSPs), also known as “liquid plastics”, is overlooked by scientific community. WSPs are produced in large quantities and used in a wide plethora of applications such as food packaging, pharmaceuticals and personal care products, cosmetics and detergents, with a consequent continuous release in the environment. The aim of this study was the investigation of the possible toxicity induced by polyvinyl alcohol (PVA), one of the main produced and used WSPs, on two freshwater model organisms, the crustacean Daphnia magna and the teleost Danio rerio (zebrafish). We evaluated the effects of solubilized standard PVA powder and PVA-based commercial bags for carp-fishing, at 3 different concentrations (1 µg/L, 0.5 mg/L and 1 mg/L), through the exposures for 14 days of D. magna (daphnids; age < 24 h) and for 5 days of zebrafish embryos (up to 120 h post fertilization - hpf). As acute effects we evaluated the immobilization/mortality of specimens, while for chronic toxicity we selected several endpoints with a high ecological relevance, as the behavioural alteration on swimming performance, in real-time readout, and the activity of monoamine oxidase (MAO), a neuro-enzyme with a potential implication in the organism movement. The results showed the lack of significant effects induced by the selected substances, at all tested concentrations and in both model organisms. However, considering the wide plethora of available WSPs, other investigations are needed to provide the initial knowledge of risk assessment of these compounds contained in some consumer products.

尽管塑料引起的污染已成为众所周知且有文献记载的问题，导致许多国家对其生产、商业化和使用采取限制措施，但以水溶性聚合物 (WSP) 为代表的另一类新兴合成聚合物的影响，也被称为“液体塑料”，被科学界所忽视。WSP 大量生产并用于食品包装、药品和个人护理产品、化妆品和洗涤剂等广泛的应用领域，因此会在环境中持续释放。本研究的目的是调查聚乙烯醇 (PVA) 对两种淡水模式生物甲壳类水蚤的可能毒性，聚乙烯醇是主要生产和使用的 WSP 之一。和硬骨鱼斑马鱼（斑马鱼）。我们通过 14 天的D.麦格纳（水蚤；年龄 < 24 小时）和 5 天的斑马鱼胚胎（受精后长达 120 小时 - hpf）。作为急性效应，我们评估了标本的固定/死亡率，而对于慢性毒性，我们选择了几个具有高度生态相关性的终点，作为游泳表现的行为改变、实时读数和单胺氧化酶 (MAO) 的活性，一种对有机体运动有潜在影响的神经酶。结果表明，在所有测试浓度和两种模式生物中，所选物质缺乏显着影响。然而，考虑到大量可用的 WSP，需要进行其他调查以提供对某些消费品中所含这些化合物的风险评估的初步知识。