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The (partial) replacement of synthetic polymers with bioplastics is due to increased production of conventional packaging plastics causing for severe environmental pollution with plastics waste. The bioplastics, however, represent complex mixtures of known and unknown (bio)polymers, fillers, plasticizers, stabilizers, flame retardant, pigments, antioxidants, hydrophobic polymers such as poly(lactic acid), polyethylene, polyesters, glycol, or poly(butylene succinate), and little is known of their chemical safety for both the environment and the human health. Polymerization reactions of bioplastics can produce no intentionally added chemicals to the bulk material, which could be toxic, as well. When polymers are used to food packing, then the latter chemicals could also migrate from the polymer to food. This fact compromises the safety for consumers, as well. The scarce data on chemical safety of bioplastics makes a gap in knowledge of their toxicity to humans and environment. Thus, development of exact analytical protocols for determining chemicals of bioplastics in environmental and food samples as well as packing polymers can only provide warrant for reliable conclusive evidence of their safety for both the human health and the environment. The task is compulsory according to legislation Directives valid to environmental protection, food control, and assessment of the risk to human health. The quantitative and structural determination of analytes is primary research task of analysis of polymers. The methods of mass spectrometry are fruitfully used for these purposes. Methodological development of exact analytical mass spectrometric tools for reliable structural analysis of bioplastics only guarantees their safety, efficacy, and quality to both humans and environment. This study, first, highlights innovative stochastic dynamics equations processing exactly mass spectrometric measurands and, thus, producing exact analyte quantification and 3D molecular and electronic structural analyses. There are determined synthetic polymers such as poly(ethylenglycol), poly(propylene glycol), and polyisoprene as well as biopolymers in bags for foodstuffs made from renewable cellulose and starch, and containing, in total within the 20,416–17,495 chemicals per sample of the composite biopolymers. Advantages of complementary employment in mass spectrometric methods and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy is highlighted. The study utilizes ultra-high resolution electrospray ionization mass spectrometric and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopic data on biodegradable plastics bags for foodstuffs; high accuracy quantum chemical static methods, molecular dynamics; and chemometrics. There is achieved method performance |r| = 0.99981 determining poly(propylene glycol) in bag for foodstuff containing 20,416 species and using stochastic dynamics mass spectrometric formulas. The results highlight their great capability and applicability to the analytical science as well as relevance to both the fundamental research and to the industry.
Contamination of water resources as a starting point for socio-scientific activism
Vol 4, Issue 1, 2023
VIEWS - 5715 (Abstract)
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Abstract
Science curricula emphasize the need to involve students in civil society issues related to science, highlighting the primacy of learning about the science-technology-society-environment relationship. The objective of this work is to know the students' learning when they get involved in the attempt to solve the problem related to the pollution of the stream near their school. The research methodology is qualitative, interpretative and based on participant observation. Twenty-one students from two 8th grade classes[1] with an alternative curriculum, living in a rural environment in southwestern Portugal, participated in the study. Data were collected through the teacher's diary, written documents and interviews with the students (conducted at the final of the study). The results reveal that the positive experiences provided by the radio club gave them confidence and encouraged them to engage in community activism related to the pollution of the local stream. This activism takes the form of a puppet show about sewage treatment. Also, the results show us that activism leads students to the identification of the science and technology issues that are at the root of the pollution of the creek, expanding their knowledge about the problem and discussing different perspectives for its solution. In addition, young people recognize that knowledge enables them to inform other members of the community and realize that they have the right to become involved in socio-scientific issues that affect their quality of life.
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Prof. Hongxing Dai
Beijing University of Technology, China
