Yukie Mato’s research while affiliated with Tokyo University of Agriculture and Technology and other places

... Health impacts of stranded material could derive also from the chemicals acquired from seawater and then transferred to the sand (i.e., polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons). Information on chemicals accumulation in stranded material is widely underexplored and limited to plastic resin pellets (small 10 -50 mm granules; Takada et al. 2012). Moreover, the studies on human health risk from exposure to chemical-contaminated sand are limited to beaches impacted by oil spills (Black et al. 2016;Altomare et al., 2021), therefore after the occurrence of extreme contamination events. ...

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Original Articles Beach pollution from marine litter: Analysis with the DPSIR framework (driver, pressure, state, impact, response) in Tuscany, Italy

... For example, in an in situ adsorption experiment, PE was found to have a higher affinity for PCBs than PP. 130 All MPs identied in the present study, with the exception of one polyamide/nylon piece, were less dense than sea water and were able to oat on the water surface and transported over long distances. Thus, they can be exposed to POPs from other areas before they reach the studied beaches and therefore they can reect the pollution along the entire transport path. ...

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Microplastic-sorbed persistent organic pollutants in coastal Mediterranean Sea areas of Tunisia

... These pellets are transported to factories where they are heated, melted, pressed, and molded into the final product, such as packaging, toys, and automobile parts. During transportation and handling, a portion of the pellets are spilled to the environments and eventually washed into streams and rivers and then the ocean (Kuriyama et al., 2002). In addition, plastic resin pellets are spilled from containers onboard at the harbors accidentally and / or storm events (Saliba et al., 2022;James et al., 2023). ...

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Benzotriazole UV-stabilizers in beached plastic resin pellets collected across the world including remote islands: Evidence of plastic-mediated long-range environmental transport (LRET) of additives

... Also APEOs are used for emulsion polymerization in plastic production (Talmage, 1994). Detection of nonylphenols in plastic products has been reported (Isobe et al., 2002;Loyo-Rosales et al., 2004). These additive-derived NP are a source of NP detected in oceanic plastic fragments. ...

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Organic micropollutants in marine plastics debris from the open ocean and remote and urban beaches

... Due to the hydrophobic nature of plastics, hydrophobic contaminants in seawater are adsorbed and become concentrated in plastic pellets (Mato et al., 2001;Rochman et al., 2013). Various persistent organic contaminants, including PCBs, organochlorine pesticides, PBDEs, PAHs, coprostanol, and triclosan, have been measured in resin pellets to understand the pollution status of coastal waters (Ogata et al., 2009;Karapanagioti et al., 2011;Mizukawa et al., 2013;Hosoda et al., 2014;Yeo et al., 2015;Le et al., 2016;Taniguchi et al., 2016;Yeo et al., 2017;Yamashita et al., 2019;Pozo et al., 2020;Alidoust et al., 2021;Ohgaki et al., 2021;Alidoust et al., 2024). For this type of monitoring, polyethylene (PE) has been utilized because of its higher affinity to hydrophobic compounds (Endo et al., 2005;Karapanagioti and Klontza, 2008). ...

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Benzotriazole UV-stabilizers in beached plastic resin pellets collected across the world including remote islands: Evidence of plastic-mediated long-range environmental transport (LRET) of additives

... In addition to polymers, plastic contains many other dangerous chemical substances (fillers, plasticizers, flame retardants, dyes, stabilizers, biocides, etc.) as well as unintentionally added substances (metabolites, impurities, contaminants, etc.) [37]. In aquatic environments, the long permanence of MPs involves the modification of their chemical fingerprint; on the one hand they release their chemical constituents, but above all they associate with environmental chemical substances such as organic compounds and metals, and also act as vectors of microorganisms [38][39][40][41][42]. All small pieces of plastic marine debris can act as microbe aggregating devices forming a biofilm called plastisphere, which provides habitats for a wide range of rafting organisms and microbial communities. ...

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Pollution Has No Borders: Microplastics in Antarctica