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Microplastics as Pervasive Contaminants: Ecosystem Disruption, Human Health Risks, and Detection Approaches
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Researchers reviewed the sources, environmental fate, ecotoxicological effects, and health risks of microplastics — now detected in air, water, soil, and food — linking chronic exposure to reproductive toxicity, carcinogenesis, neurotoxicity, and metabolic disorders, while summarizing detection methods including Raman spectroscopy and emerging sensor-based technologies.
Microplastic (MP) contamination has become a global environmental and public health concern due to the extensive use of plastics and ineffective waste management. These microscopic particles are now detected in air, water, soil, and food products, raising serious concerns about their persistence, bioaccumulation, and potential risks. Microplastics (MPs) have been shown to disrupt marine biodiversity, affect plant metabolism, and enter food webs, leading to accumulation in human tissues. Chronic exposure is increasingly linked to reproductive toxicity, carcinogenesis, neurotoxicity, and metabolic disorders. This review provides a comprehensive overview of the sources, pathways, and environmental fate of microplastics, with an emphasis on their ecotoxicological effects and human health implications. It also summarises key analytical methods for detecting microplastics in environmental and food matrices, including spectroscopy, microscopy, and emerging sensor-based technologies. Finally, the review highlights the need for improved waste management, stronger policy interventions, and enhanced public awareness to mitigate microplastic pollution and protect ecosystem and human health.
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Microplastic pollution: a review of techniques to identify microplastics and their threats to the aquatic ecosystem
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This review summarizes existing research on methods for identifying microplastics in water and their effects on aquatic ecosystems. The paper covers detection techniques like infrared and Raman spectroscopy and discusses how microplastics threaten aquatic organisms through ingestion and entanglement. Since these contaminated organisms enter the human food chain, the findings underscore why understanding aquatic microplastic pollution matters for human health.
Progress on the Main Sources of Microplastics in the Environment and their Detection Methods
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This review examines the main sources of microplastics in aquatic environments, air, and food, and describes the primary detection methods including microscopic analysis, scanning electron microscopy, infrared and Raman spectroscopy, and thermal analysis with mass spectrometry. The authors compare the advantages and limitations of each method and note that Raman spectroscopy predominates for aquatic detection while visual inspection is most common for atmospheric microplastics.
Microplastics as Environmental Pollutants: Biological and Health Consequences – A Comprehensive Review
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Researchers synthesized current knowledge on microplastic sources, environmental distribution, and biological effects across aquatic, terrestrial, and atmospheric systems, documenting pathways by which both primary and secondary microplastics enter organisms and accumulate through food webs.
Unraveling Microplastics: Sources, Environment and Health Impacts, and Detection Techniques
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This review provides a comprehensive overview of microplastic sources, environmental transport mechanisms, health risks, and current detection technologies used across water systems. The authors examine a broad range of analytical methods, from spectroscopy to sensor-based approaches, for identifying and quantifying microplastics in diverse environmental samples. The study concludes that no single detection technique is sufficient on its own, and integrated multi-method approaches are needed for reliable monitoring.
Occurrence, distribution, characteristics, toxicity, human health effects and removal techniques of Microplastic: A Review
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This review surveys the occurrence, distribution, toxicity, and health effects of microplastics across environmental compartments, examining how these particles enter ecosystems and food chains and evaluating available removal and mitigation techniques.
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