Identification of microplastics in conventional drinking water treatment plants in Tehran, Iran.

ABSTRACT: The presence of microplastics (MPs), as an emerging pollutant is a growing concern in drinking water, yet most of the studies have been carried out in surface waters and wastewater treatment plants and there are few studies on MPs in drinking water treatment plants (DWTPs). This study investigates these particles in three different conventional DWTPs in the city of Tehran, Iran, and aims to analyze these particles down to the size of 1 µm. A scanning electron microscope was utilized in this study to quantitatively analyze MPs. Accordingly, the average abundance of MPs in raw and treated water samples varied from 1996 ± 268 to 2808 ± 80 MPs L^-1 and 971 ± 103 to 1401 ± 86 MPs L^-1, respectively. While particles smaller than 10 µm comprised 65-87% of MPs. Moreover, µ-Rama

SUBMITTER: Adib D 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8617154 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature