Description:

From academia to government and private sectors, microplastics are increasingly spotlighted as the next major challenge for environmental disruption and potential impacts on human health. Lack of high quality and harmonized methods for the monitoring, quantitative measurement, and identification of microplastics in complex environmental matrices creates a defined challenge for the generation of appropriate exposure assessments. Simply put, the science of microplastic monitoring and analytics is in its infancy and scientists continue to develop increasingly improved methodologies. Technical challenges for building robust methods to examine environmental microplastics can differ depending upon the chemical and physical nature of the plastic and the surrounding environmental matrix. These challenges cannot be tackled alone and diverse collaboration is required between industry, academia, and governmental scientists to generate solutions. This talk will dive into recent discoveries, newly identified challenges, and global advances in microplastics extraction and analytics including efforts in interlaboratory studies, specific analytical techniques, and select research at BASF. Primary focuses will include the extraction and quantitation of microplastics from water and sediment. The impact of study results on the advancement of exposure assessments and on our understanding of microplastic fate and transport will be explored.

FEATURING Jeanne Hankett, PhD, Senior Analytical Scientist at BASF.

This exclusive event is part of the virtual seminar series hosted by the Program on Plastics, Ecosystems, and Public Health at the Institute for Sustainability and Energy at Northwestern University (ISEN).