AUTHOR=Gugliandolo Enrico , Licata Patrizia , Crupi Rosalia , Albergamo Ambrogina , Jebara Amel , Lo Turco Vincenzo , Potortì Angela Giorgia , Mansour Hedi Ben , Cuzzocrea Salvatore , Di Bella Giuseppa TITLE=Plasticizers as Microplastics Tracers in Tunisian Marine Environment JOURNAL=Frontiers in Marine Science VOLUME=Volume 7 - 2020 YEAR=2020 URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/marine-science/articles/10.3389/fmars.2020.589398 DOI=10.3389/fmars.2020.589398 ISSN=2296-7745 ABSTRACT=The new knowledge on the bio-transformations to which the plastic material is subjected, raise concerns about their role as environmental contaminants. Microplastic have been reported to be responsible for the release and distribution of aquatic contaminants such organophosphorus esters, pesticides, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, polychlorinated biphenyls, and phthalate esters. The occurrence, spatiotemporal trends, and ecological risk of phthalic acid esters (PAEs) and nonphthalate plasticizers (NPPs) released from microplastic were investigated in water and fish (S. aurata) from five sites along the coast of Mahdia governorate (Tunisia), during April 2018-March 2019. In seawater the most abundant and frequently detected congeners were dibutyl phthalate (DBP, 0.017 mg L-1 and 0.055 mg Kg-1), diisobutyl phthalate (DiBP, 0.075 mg L-1 and 0.219 mg Kg-1), di(2-ethylhexyl) phthalate (DEHP, 0.071 mg L-1 and 4.594 mg Kg-1), and di(2-ethylhexyl) terephthalate (DEHT, 0.634 mg L-1 and 2.424 mg Kg-1). (ΣPAEs: 1.416 mg Kg-1 and 5.581 mg Kg-1; ΣNPPs: 9.191 mg Kg-1 and 26.296 mg Kg-1), confirming that such compounds bioconcentrate through the food chain. DBP (0.389 and 0.817 mg Kg-1), DiBP (0.101 and 0.921 mg Kg-1), DEHP (0.726 and 1.771 mg Kg-1) and DEHT (9.191 and 23.251 mg Kg-1) were predominant also in S. aurata confirming that such compounds bioconcentrate through the food chain. Overall, Tunisian samples i) were much more contaminated than counterparts previously investigated for the same pollutants from other world areas, and ii) revealed NPPs at higher levels than PAEs, confirming that such plasticizers are increasingly replacing conventional PAEs.