Mr. Satoru Yukioka, 3rd year doctoral student from the Graduate School of Global Environment Studies, received the 1st Place Best Student Poster Presentation Award at the 26th International Symposium on Polycyclic Aromatic Compounds (ISPAC 2019) held September 9-12, 2019.
Recently, a new exposure pathway of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) and their halogenated PAHs via Microplastics (MPs) to aquatic organisms have been a great concern. The main objective of his study was to understand the adsorption characteristics of PAHs in water environment by focusing on the diameters of MPs. We conducted field surveys to collect MPs (> 315 µm) in Lake Biwa and Osaka bay from Oct. to Nov. 2017 in order to analyze 16 PAHs, 11 halogenated-PAHs on adsorbed MPs in surface water. It was shown that MPs in water environment with smaller diameter tended to adsorb more PAHs. It was assumed that PAHs were adsorbed more to MPs than to suspended solids when their diameters were in the range of several tens of µm. In addition, it was suspected that more PAHs were adsorbed to MPs when surface areas of MPs were increased by the effect of physical and/or chemical reactions in the water environment.
Mr. Yukioka and his awarded poster 1st Place Best Student Poster Presentation Award
