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COVID-19 and Microplastics: Analysing the Role of Medical Waste in Environmental Pollution
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Researchers analyze how the COVID-19 pandemic dramatically increased biomedical waste generation — particularly single-use plastics like masks and gloves — and how improper disposal introduced large quantities of new microplastic sources into aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems, compounding existing plastic pollution challenges.
The onset of the COVID-19 era has presented substantial challenges to both environment and human life. It resulted in an increase in the production of biomedical waste, which subsequently ended up in aquatic bodies and terrestrial ecosystems due to improper disposal....
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Microplastic Pollution: Occurrence, Sources and Impact of COVID-19 Generated Waste
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Researchers reviewed how the COVID-19 pandemic dramatically increased microplastic pollution through mass disposal of masks, gloves, and other single-use items, examining the cascading effects on ecosystems and human health.
Impact of Microplastics Generated from Covid Biomedical Waste on Aquatic and Terrestrial Ecosystems
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Researchers examined how the massive surge in COVID-19 personal protective equipment (PPE) waste contributed to microplastic pollution in both aquatic and land-based ecosystems, raising concerns that the pandemic's environmental impact may extend well beyond its immediate health toll.
Plastic Pollution During COVID-19 Pandemic: A Disaster in the Making
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Researchers assessed how the COVID-19 pandemic created a plastic pollution crisis, finding that while mobility restrictions temporarily reduced some environmental pressures, the surge in single-use protective equipment and packaging generated massive new streams of plastic waste with significant ecological consequences.
Double Trouble: COVID-19 and Microplastics
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Researchers examined how the COVID-19 pandemic dramatically increased demand for single-use plastics — from PPE to packaging — compounding an already critical microplastic pollution crisis and accelerating the flow of plastic waste into the environment.
Role of Microplastics in the Global Plastics Pollution Crisis with Respect to One Health in the Post-COVID-19 Era
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This review applied a One Health framework to assess how the global microplastic crisis—worsened by pandemic-related surges in single-use plastics—threatens human, animal, and ecosystem health through ingestion, inhalation, endocrine disruption, and biomagnification through food webs. The interdisciplinary lens underscores that microplastic pollution cannot be addressed by any single sector and requires coordinated policy, waste management reform, and public health action to reduce systemic human exposure.
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