Plasticizers – Benefits, Trends, Health, and Environmental
Plasticizers are colorless and odorless esters, mainly phthalates, that increase the elasticity of a material (e.g., polyvinylchloride (PVC)). Plasticizers soften the PVC to make it flexible and bendable. This opens up a huge range of possibilities for new applications. One of the main benefits of plasticizers is the durability they confer onto
Diverging trends of plasticizers (phthalates and non
The fate of plasticizers can differ in indoor and aquatic environments, because environmental conditions are not comparable. The predominant fate of phthalates in aerobic aquatic environments is biodegradation [ 102 ], whereas losses in indoor environments caused by microbial degradation could only be demonstrated at elevated humidity [ 16 ].
Environmental fate of selected phosphate esters
Occurrence and fate of organophosphorus flame retardants and plasticizers in urban and remote surface waters in Germany. Water Research 2010 , 44 (14) , 4097-4104.
The Environmental Fate of Plasticizers | Request PDF
Plasticizers, which are the most widely used additives in polymer manufacturing (Wypych, 2004), have raised serious health and environmental concerns in recent years ( Giam et al., 1984; Roy,...
The fate of plastic in the ocean environment – a minireview
The durability of plastic entails slow degradation and it was believed that plastics may persists in the environment for an extended period of time, possibly exceeding centuries or even millennia. 4 Yet, floating plastics not only fragment in the marine environment but are also degraded through photooxidation, which, in combination with microbial
- Are plastic additives harmful to the environment?
- Although the use of plastic additives enhances the specific properties of plastic polymers, the accumulation of plastic additives can cause serious harm to the environment, and consequently to human health (Groh et al., 2019; Hahladakis et al., 2018) (Fig. 2).
- Are plasticizers harmful to the environment?
- Importantly, plasticizers lack chemical bonds with the products to which they are added, potentially enabling them to leach into the environment; once released, phthalates can contaminate soil, water, and air.
- What are the environmental risks of plastics?
- Notably, the ecological risks of plastics come not only from microplastics or nanoplastics produced during the decomposition, fragmentation, abrasion and aging of plastics (Zhang et al., 2022a), but also from plastic additives added to polymers with nonpolar bonds.
- Can microbes mitigate plasticizers from the environment?
- This suggests that naturally occurring microbes are capable of mitigate the plasticizers from the environment. Changes in microbial communities and the fate of plasticizers in sediment offer important insights into the lasting environmental effects of microplastic contamination.
- Are plastic additives a problem in the marine environment?
- In addition, plastic additives are subject to migration in the marine environment. More than 8000,000 tonnes of plastics accumulate in the marine environment each year, accounting for 80 per cent of marine litter (Andrady, 2011), and various plastic additives have been detected in seawater globally (Bergé et al., 2013).
- Are emerging/alternative plasticizers harmful?
- Various emerging/alternative plasticizers entered the market following the ban on several phthalate plasticizers because of their harmful effects. However, there are limited data (especially peer-reviewed) on emerging plasticizers’ toxicity and environmental impact.
