Novel Plasticizers Are Emerging Contaminants ^†

In recent years, plastic use and pollution have gained a lot of attention. Plastic particles have been identified from the Mariana Trench [1] to high mountains [2]. However, the impact of plastic goes beyond that of particles [3]. Plastics are chemically very diverse. In addition to the principal polymeric component, plastics contain over 10,000 different additives [4] that may be non-intentional (e.g., production impurities) or intentional (functional) for obtaining certain properties. Flexibility is an important property for which plasticizers, a group of functional additives, are used. Until recently, phthalates have been the most widely used plasticizers, but advanced knowledge on the hazardous properties of several commonly used phthalate plasticizers has led to their strict regulation in the European Economic Area since 2020. This has created the need for alternative plasticizers, especially in sensitive human applications. The plastic industry has started producing and using novel non-phthalate plasticizers and high-molecular-weight phthalate plasticizers to the extent that they have become emerging contaminants [5,6]. Due to their hydrophobicity, plasticizers sorb to particulate matter and tend to accumulate in, e.g., wastewater treatment sludge. In the current research, sludge from wastewater treatment plants was sampled from all over Estonia (20 samples) to analyse the occurrence of selected novel plasticizers in the Estonian environment. Samples were analysed using gas chromatography–mass spectrometry (GC-MS). The first results showed that the most widely used DEHT (Bis(2-ethylhexylterephthalate), DPHP (Di(2-propylheptyl)phthalate), DINCH (1,2-cyclohexanedicarboxylic acid diisonyl ester) were above the GC-MS quantification limits in the majority of the analysed samples, and their levels were comparable to those of the regulated phthalate plasticizer DEHP (Bis(2-ethylhexyl) phthalate).