Release of Microplastics from Urban Wastewater Treatment Plants to Aquatic Ecosystems in Acapulco, Mexico
, José Luis Rosas-Acevedo 1,*, Aurelio RamÃrez-Hernández 2, Alejandro Aparicio-Saguilan 3, Rosa M. Brito-Carmona 1 and Juan Violante-González 4Round 1
Reviewer 1 Report
The authors should consider the following suggestions:
For abstract, an effective abstract should adequately condense the entirety of the article, showcasing a wealth of information to provide readers with a clear understanding of the paper's content and findings.
Line 28 putting microplastic into keywords
Line 36 The size range of microplastics spans from 5mm down to the nanoscale.
Line 41 The color of plastics can be white or transparent, and they might undergo oxidation, leading to discoloration. Relevant literature should be consulted and incorporated for further details.
Author Response
Dear Reviewer,
We are writing to provide the corrections and responses to the observations you made regarding our text. Please see the attachment
Best regards,
The authors
Author Response File: 
Author Response.pdf
Reviewer 2 Report
1. The quality of language of the manuscript needs substantial improvement. IN several places, sentences are extremely long and complicated. For example,
Due to the complexity and polymeric diversity of these emerging pollutants, standardized protocols have not yet been established to accurately and truthfully determine the real concentration of these particles in aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems and their impact on them due to the complexity and polymeric diversity of these emerging pollutants and the little knowledge of their impact, standardized protocols have not yet been established to accurately and truthfully determine the real amounts of these particles in aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems, in addition, their emission and transfer greatly hinders the implementation of policies and regulations on the maximum permissible limits for the control 58 and elimination of MP in the environment" (Line 51-57).
"The influents and effluents of the WWTPs analyzed in this study, the abundance of MP according to their color reflect the complexity of these polymeric micropollutants that are transferred to the hydrological bodies, therefore, in addition to their implications for the environment, in the absence of regulatory policies and standards, they constitute a serious threat to the health of aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems (272-276)."
2. The study is not mentioned properly. Latitude and Longitude should be mentioned along with the country name.
3. Figure 2: Correct the caption.
4. Figure 3 (a.b): Add explanatory notes of the figures in the caption. The numerical beside the bar is overlapping, edit it to keep the numerical separate.
5. Table 3: Where is the year?
6. Delete 'receiving body' as the 'keyword'. Use more appropriate keyword for the paper.
Significant improvement in English language is required.
Author Response
Dear Reviewer,
We are writing to provide the corrections and responses to the observations you made regarding our text. Please see the attachment
Best regards,
The authors
Author Response File: Author Response.pdf
Reviewer 3 Report
In this article, the authors present the results of the study on the release of microplastics from urban wastewater treatment plants to aquatic ecosystems in Acapulco, Mexico.
The results are very interesting, and these provide knowledge base data for the development of technical and methodological criteria in the construction of policies and regulatory norms whose purpose is the elimination of MP from effluents and mitigate future damage to the environment.
The conclusions are relevant and drawn from the study.
The authors may refer to the following suggestions:
1. At Line 188: You must write “MP detection”
2. I recommend checking the text to eliminate spelling mistakes and use shorter sentences, especially in the Introduction
Author Response
Dear Reviewer,
We are writing to provide the corrections and responses to the observations you made regarding our text. Please see the attachment
Best regards,
The authors
Author Response File: Author Response.pdf
Reviewer 4 Report
In this article, the authors conducted a comprehensive analysis of microplastics present in wastewater from various treatment plants. Standard characterization methods widely used in microplastics research were employed for this purpose. Here are some suggestions for improving the clarity and fluency of the manuscript based on the provided comments:
1 - Did the authors also detect nanoplastics in the samples?
2 - The description of sizes is unclear. Why were sizes of 150 and 38 micrometers chosen?
3 - In Figure 2-3, particles are categorized by color, but colors might be misleading at the microscale due to scattering effects. Have the authors conducted any spectroscopic characterizations of these particles?
4 - Is there a noticeable optical difference between microplastics with varying chemical compositions? It would be beneficial to include images of the FTIR samples in Figure 5 for clarity.
English is fine.
Author Response
Dear Reviewer,
We are writing to provide the corrections and responses to the observations you made regarding our text. Please see the attachment
Best regards,
The authors
Author Response File: Author Response.pdf
