Microplastic Analysis of the Marine Environment in Ras Tanura

Abstract

As the amount of plastic waste continues to increase with humanity¡¯s extravagant use of it, the problem of microplastic pollution arises. Microplastics are minuscule plastic particles that have decomposed, and their sizes range from 1 micrometer to 5000 micrometers. Recently, scientists have found that microplastics have infested almost all of Earth¡¯s marine ecosystems. As such, water samples from the local beach of Ras Tanura in Saudi Arabia were analyzed using Gas Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry (GC-MS) and Fourier Transform Infrared (FT-IR) Spectroscopy for microplastic particle detection.. The local beach was chosen because many people perform activities there such as swimming and fishing, and there are lots of oil tankers that dock at a nearby port, so analyzing the water from this beach will give results on which microplastics are the most abundant in these settings. The results of the analysis using FT-IR states that particles of polyamide (PA), polyethylene (PE), polymethyl methacrylate (PMMA), polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE), polyurethane (PU), and rayon were detected in the water samples. However, due to the limitations of GC-MS regarding microplastic concentration threshold, the results came out very vague The analysis of the Ras Tanura beach water shows the extent of how easily microplastic pollution can spread. Additionally, it emphasizes the importance of improvement in the limitations of analysis methodologies, such as the case of GC-MS and the minimum concentration threshold. Another improvement that should be made is the standardization of microplastic analysis, specifically the development of a clear-cut line between safe and dangerous microplastic concentrations in water.