A naturally occurring body of water which does not contain high levels of dissolved salts.
Published in Chapter:
The Presence and Impacts of Microplastics in Drinking Water: Their Occurrence, Detection, Removal, and Implications
Alice Liddell (Queen's University Belfast, UK), Marco Geron (Queen's University Belfast, UK), Eoin Cunningham (Queen's University Belfast, UK), and Beatrice M. Smyth (Queen's University Belfast, UK)
Copyright: © 2022
|Pages: 19
DOI: 10.4018/978-1-7998-9190-1.ch004
Abstract
This chapter discusses the issues of plastic, primarily microplastic pollution in freshwater and drinking water, with a focus on developing nations. Microplastics, generally defined as plastic particles with a size less than 5 mm, are beginning to gain attention as an emerging contaminant of concern. Whilst testing has recently begun on the contamination of freshwater and treated drinking water by microplastics in a number of developed regions, literature regarding microplastic pollution in the water of less economically developed countries is lacking. Microplastics pose a threat to human health, and therefore, it is important that cost-effective methods for the testing, detection, and removal of these plastic items from drinking water globally is considered with a higher level of urgency. It is argued that by achieving the aims laid out by the Sustainable Development Goals, particularly Goals 6 and 12, the threats from microplastic pollution will subside.