The National Institute of Environmental Research and the National Institute of Fisheries Science will gather on the 15th to address the problem that microplastic analysis methods for rivers and for the sea differ from each other. A microplastic analytical technology study meeting, attended by some 20 people from the two institutes, related agencies and academia, will be held in Jung-gu, Seoul.
The study meeting was arranged by the National Institute of Environmental Research together with the National Institute of Fisheries Science and a council of microplastic experts. The National Institute of Environmental Research, which belongs to the Ministry of Climate, Energy and Environment, has exchanged analytical technology with the National Institute of Fisheries Science since signing a memorandum of understanding in June 2024, and discussions on turning a little over two years of accumulated exchange into an actual system will be taken up this time.
The organizers explained the background to holding this meeting as follows.
Microplastics escape into the environment at every stage from production through use to disposal. Reports have continued that they are detected in rivers and the sea, and also in drinking water, seafood and soil. Land samples and marine samples differ in nature, so the procedures for handling them have diverged, and because methods vary by institute and by medium, it has been difficult to place survey results side by side for comparison. Even when it was known where and how severe the pollution was, there was no common scale for measuring that severity against one another.
The problem of differing analytical standards also exists between countries. It has been pointed out that internationally unified analytical standards have not been completed, making it hard to place national survey results directly side by side. This is also the background to Korea and Japan jointly leading and developing the microplastic standard analysis method ISO/TC 147 16094-4 at the International Organization for Standardization. How far this standard development has progressed will be shared at the study meeting.
The items for discussion that day are fairly practical. The participants will check each institute's research status and cases of applying analytical technology, and examine how to filter out interference factors arising from the characteristics of the matrix and the sample, and what standards to apply for quality control. The automated analysis technique the National Institute of Environmental Research has been researching will also be introduced. It is a method in which an algorithm assists work that involved picking out particles one by one by hand.
Within a schedule that starts at 2 p.m. and runs until 6 p.m., the general discussion begins at 4 p.m. In what order to carry out pretreatment, where to apply pyrolysis pretreatment, what to set the density separation conditions at, what level the recovery rate must satisfy. These are laboratory settings that look trivial on the surface, but when they diverge, different figures come out of the same river water.
The National Institute of Environmental Research said it will draw up a concrete implementation plan for establishing joint research and a cooperation system with the National Institute of Fisheries Science, and will put in place an integrated analytical foundation that allows land and marine analysis results to be compared with each other. Kim Kyung-hyun, head of the Water Environment Research Department, said it is important to understand the characteristics of analytical technologies that differ by field and to establish an analytical system that allows mutual comparison.
The standards have not been consolidated into one. This meeting is closer to a starting point for that work. When and through what stages standardization will be completed remains something whose outline will take shape as the implementation plan emerges. Still, whether regulation or reduction measures, nothing can be tackled without measurements that can be compared.
Synthetic fiber fragments shed from washing machines are one of the common starting points for microplastics. Simply switching to a finer laundry net or making a habit of collecting laundry and washing it in one load reduces the amount going out through the drain.
