19a8083b-afa4-40b9-91bf-7a529eea870d English ISO/IEC 8859-1 (also known as Latin 1) nonGeographicDataset nonGeographicDataset NERC EDS Environmental Information Data Centre Lancaster Environment Centre, Library Avenue, Bailrigg Lancaster LA1 4AP UK info@eidc.ac.uk https://eidc.ac.uk/ EIDC website The Environmental Information Data Centre (EIDC) is the UK's national data centre for terrestrial and freshwater sciences. information pointOfContact 2025-11-13T16:15:02 UK GEMINI 2.3 Tensile strength and concentrations of E. coli colonising three types of wet wipes in a sand mesocosm 2024-07-15 publication https://catalogue.ceh.ac.uk/id/19a8083b-afa4-40b9-91bf-7a529eea870d 10.5285/19a8083b-afa4-40b9-91bf-7a529eea870d doi: Metcalf, R., Fellows, R., White, H.L., Quilliam, R. (2024). Tensile strength and concentrations of E. coli colonising three types of wet wipes in a sand mesocosm. NERC EDS Environmental Information Data Centre 10.5285/19a8083b-afa4-40b9-91bf-7a529eea870d In this mesocosm study, three types of wet wipes (plastic containing, and home and commercially compostable) colonised with E. coli were buried in beach sand and their degradation, tensile strength, and concentration of E. coli was quantified over 15 weeks. Wipes were firstly passed through a series of treatments to simulate their journey from the bathroom to the beach. Water characteristics (pH, salinity) of these water types were measured. Full details about this nonGeographicDataset can be found at https://doi.org/10.5285/19a8083b-afa4-40b9-91bf-7a529eea870d Metcalf, R. University of Stirling Rebecca.metcalf@stir.ac.uk https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1463-427X ORCID record ORCID is an open, non-profit, community-driven effort to create and maintain a registry of unique researcher identifiers and a transparent method of linking research activities and outputs to these identifiers. information pointOfContact Metcalf, R. University of Stirling Rebecca.metcalf@stir.ac.uk https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1463-427X ORCID record ORCID is an open, non-profit, community-driven effort to create and maintain a registry of unique researcher identifiers and a transparent method of linking research activities and outputs to these identifiers. information author Fellows, R. University of Stirling Rosie.fellows@stir.ac.uk author White, H.L. University of Stirling Hannah.white@stir.ac.uk author Quilliam, R. University of Stirling Richard.quilliam@stir.ac.uk https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7020-4410 ORCID record ORCID is an open, non-profit, community-driven effort to create and maintain a registry of unique researcher identifiers and a transparent method of linking research activities and outputs to these identifiers. information author University of Stirling Rebecca.metcalf@stir.ac.uk owner NERC EDS Environmental Information Data Centre info@eidc.ac.uk publisher NERC EDS Environmental Information Data Centre info@eidc.ac.uk custodian Human Health and Safety theme GEMET - INSPIRE themes, version 1.0 2008-06-01 publication public health microbiology GEMET - Concepts, version 4.1.3 2019-01-28 creation Pollution environmental pathogens sewage discharge plastic pollution sand microbiology otherRestrictions no limitations otherRestrictions This resource is available under the terms of the Open Government Licence otherRestrictions If you reuse this data, you should cite: Metcalf, R., Fellows, R., White, H.L., Quilliam, R. (2024). Tensile strength and concentrations of E. coli colonising three types of wet wipes in a sand mesocosm. NERC EDS Environmental Information Data Centre https://doi.org/10.5285/19a8083b-afa4-40b9-91bf-7a529eea870d English utf8 health environment Comma-separated values (CSV) NERC EDS Environmental Information Data Centre info@eidc.ac.uk distributor https://data-package.ceh.ac.uk/data/19a8083b-afa4-40b9-91bf-7a529eea870d Download the data Download a copy of this data download https://data-package.ceh.ac.uk/sd/19a8083b-afa4-40b9-91bf-7a529eea870d.zip Supporting information Supporting information available to assist in re-use of this dataset information nonGeographicDataset nonGeographicDataset Commission Regulation (EU) No 1089/2010 of 23 November 2010 implementing Directive 2007/2/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council as regards interoperability of spatial data sets and services 2010-12-08 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.