Tensile strength and concentrations of E. coli colonising three types of wet wipes in a sand mesocosm

At weekly timepoints (for 15 weeks), four of each wet wipe type were randomly selected, and removed from the mesocosm using sterile forceps. The loosely adhering sand was shaken off and each wet wipe transferred into a sterile glass vial containing 20 ml phosphate-buffered saline (PBS). Vials were then vortexed at 1500 rpm for 5 min and E. coli enumerated by filtering the PBS through 0.45 μm filters, which were placed onto selective media and incubated at 37°C. The wet wipes were removed from the glass vials and left to dry overnight. The following day, a 50 N digital force meter was used to quantify tensile strength by measuring the force required to break each wipe. Wipes were also photographed to determine degradation visually.
Background bacterial concentrations were measured by filtering 100 ml water through 0.45 μm cellulose acetate membranes and placed onto selective media.

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This dataset is included in the following collections

The survival, persistence, and ecology of microbial pathogens on the surfaces of environmental plastic pollution