Glitter Glitter Everywhere, Even Where You Least Expect It
Sabine Barrett, SETAC
No one throws a party quite like Brazil. Every year, Carnival transforms entire cities into a frenzy of music, dancing and fancy costumes sparkling with sequins and glitter. And it's the glitter that has caught the attention of researchers in Brazil, asking themselves, what happens to it once the celebration ends?
“Glitter ingestion by bromeliad-dwelling macroinvertebrates” is at the center of a recent study published in Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry as part of a Special Series focused on “Tackling Aquatic Contamination Issues in Rapidly Developing Countries Under a Changing Environment.” Alana Carmo de Oliveira and coauthors from the Federal University of Southern Bahia set out to understand how commercially available glitter (Cigana Cosméticos), commonly used for body painting and makeup, behaves once it is washed away from the streets into the local waterways.
For this controlled study, they collected water from bromeliads, pineapple-like plants whose rosette-shaped leaves trap water and create small, self-contained pools for aquatic life, then exposed the freshwater macroinvertebrates found in the water, including mosquitoes (Culicidae), non-biting midges (Chironomidae), seed shrimp (Ostracoda) and drain flies (Psychodidae), to the glitter for seven days.
They found glitter particles were widely ingested across all groups, with mosquitoes and non-biting midges exhibited significant microplastic quantities and higher contamination rates. Once ingested, the glitter did not simply pass through. Most particles accumulated in the digestive system, though some were also found in other parts of the body, including their lungs. In addition, some of these organisms can also fragment glitter particles into smaller pieces, increasing their availability in the environment. As small organisms take in these particles and are eaten by larger animals like fish and amphibians, the microplastics continue to spread.
The authors suggest that, while these species are not as sensitive to environmental changes as traditional indicator organisms, such as mayflies or stoneflies, mosquitoes and non-biting midges could serve as useful indicators for tracking microplastic pollution in freshwater systems. More broadly, the study highlights glitter as an emerging contaminant of concern and underscores the need to better understand its ecological impacts under changing environmental conditions.
Read the full article at https://doi.org/10.1093/etojnl/vgaf111.
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