Standards Development

Scope

The method describes how to determine MPs in the field of textile processing and applications, and allows their classification by particle dimension and shape as well as by type of polymer.

Purpose

To obtain a qualitative-quantitative analytical determination of the microplastics able to define: the number, the morphological and dimensional distribution, the type of MPlastics present.

A method able to express the results also in terms of surface and weight of MP per unit of sample.

A method that will therefore allow to express in a unique way all the determinations (today we find the most varied and disparate) whether they are made on raw materials, processes, environmental matrices (wastewater for example from washing clothes).

Determination on matrices samples of different physical states (solid, liquid or aeriform) for examples:

- solid waste products from textile production processes

- water from textile production process and/or from washing garments

- air quality in the workplace of textile companies.

A method that is able to provide information such as dimensions, shape, surface and weight, will therefore provide useful information for ecotoxicological assessments.

This information will in fact allow scientists and toxicologists to assess in a more detailed way the effect of different MPs on the health and the environment.

It is well known that, thanks to their lipophilicity, MPs can be vehicles of toxic compounds (e.g. PCBs, PAHs, PAHs, dioxins) or vehicles of pathogenic microorganisms adhered to their surface and can therefore be assimilated (with the relative dose of toxicity) by organisms and permeate into organisms and cells.