Clarifying the in-situ cytotoxic potential of electronic waste plastics
| Autor: | Yan Wan, Jong-Min Lee, Agnès Grandjean, Chor Yong Tay, Pujiang Shi |
|---|---|
| Přispěvatelé: | School of Chemical and Biomedical Engineering, School of Materials Science and Engineering, School of Biological Sciences, Energy Research Institute @ NTU (ERI@N) |
| Rok vydání: | 2020 |
| Předmět: |
In situ
Environmental Engineering Health Toxicology and Mutagenesis 0208 environmental biotechnology chemistry.chemical_element 02 engineering and technology 010501 environmental sciences 01 natural sciences Electronic waste Electronic Waste Antimony Hazardous waste Metals Heavy Environmental Chemistry Humans Recycling Restriction of Hazardous Substances Directive Optical emission spectrometry 0105 earth and related environmental sciences Flame Retardants Materials [Engineering] Public Health Environmental and Occupational Health Chemical engineering [Engineering] Biological sciences [Science] Heavy metals General Medicine General Chemistry Pollution Electronic Wastes 020801 environmental engineering chemistry Environmental chemistry Environmental science Leaching (metallurgy) Plastics |
| Zdroj: | Chemosphere. 269 |
| ISSN: | 1879-1298 |
| Popis: | Plastics in waste electronics (E-plastics) account for approximately 20% of the entire global electronic waste (E-waste) stream. Most of the E-plastics are not recycled as the presence of toxic additives (e.g. heavy metals, brominated flame retardants (BFRs), antimony, etc.) have associated environmental and health concerns. However, the majority of the studies are focused on quantitative assessment of the toxic constituents in E-plastics, while empirical information regarding the potential toxic effects in humans is largely lacking. To gain a deeper appreciation into the toxicological profile of E-plastics, in situ time-dependent exposures of 6 different human cell lines to a panel of 8 representative E-plastics recovered from liquid crystal displays (LCD), keyboards, screen frames, and wire insulators were conducted. Although several hazardous elements (e.g. Pb, As, Sb, Zn, Cu, etc) were detected at concentrations that far exceed the limit values permitted by the Restriction of Hazardous Substances Directive and EU Directives in the panel E-plastics, in-depth analysis of the 144 unique cell viability data points and live-dead staining experiments suggest that the acute and sub-chronic toxic effects of E-plastics in direct contact with human cells are negligible. These observations agreed with the inductively coupled plasma-optical emission spectrometry data, which revealed that leaching of these toxic additives into the biological milieu is not sufficiently high to trigger a cytotoxic response up to a continuous culture period of 2 weeks. The novel insights gained from this study are posited to further clarify the uncertainty associated with the safety and circular economy implementation of E-plastics. Ministry of National Development (MND) Nanyang Technological University National Environmental Agency (NEA) National Research Foundation (NRF) This work was financially supported by a grant award from “Singapore eCEA Alliance for Research in Circular Economy (SCARCE)”, which is a joint lab set up between Nanyang Technological University (NTU, Singapore) and the French Alternative Energies and Atomic Energy Commission (CEA, France). SCARCE is supported by the National Research Foundation, Prime Minister’s Office, Singapore, the Ministry of National Development, Singapore, and National Environment Agency, Ministry of the Environment and Water Resource, Singapore under the Closing the Waste Loop R&D Initiative as part of the Urban Solutions & Sustainability e Integration Fund (award number USS-IF-2018-4). |
| Databáze: | OpenAIRE |
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