Pollution plastique dans les eaux suisses: caractérisation et quantification de leurs micropolluants

Numerous researches showing various environmental impacts are done on marine plastic pollution. In turn the situation for superficial fresh water is poorly known. In order to measure this pollution in Switzerland three different lake samples (lake Geneva, lake Maggiore and lake Constance), beach samples and rejection pellets from limnic birds have been analyzed. The samples are divided into micro- (1-5mm) and macroplastics (>5mm). The plastic’s composition is the following: polyethylene (x̄=62 %, σ=15 %), polypropylene (x̄=21 %, σ=16 %), polystyrene (x̄= 8 %, σ=9 %), polymer mixes (x̄=5 %, σ=7 %), acetate cellulose (x̄=2 %, σ=3 %) and others (x̄= 2 %, σ=4 %). The concentrations of polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane and its metabolites (DDTs), mirex, hexachlorobenzene (HCB), polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs), nonylphenol (NP) and bisphenol A vary between 1 – 6’000 ng/g, the one for phthalates ranges from 500 – 100’000 ng/g depending on the samples. Strong variations in micro pollutants are observed among the particles. Microplastics show higher concentrations than macroplastics. Furthermore surface water samples tend to have higher concentrations than the ones from beaches. The presence of these micropollutants at the measured doses does not directly respond to the question whether there is an eco-toxicological impact or not.