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Novel Plasticizers Are Emerging Contaminants
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This review examines novel plasticizers — chemicals added to plastics to make them flexible — as emerging environmental contaminants. As regulators restrict traditional phthalate plasticizers due to their hormonal effects, newer replacement plasticizers are entering the environment with limited toxicological data, and may be found as additives in microplastic particles.
In recent years, plastic use and pollution have gained a lot of attention [...]
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Plastic additives and microplastics as emerging contaminants: Mechanisms and analytical assessment
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Researchers reviewed how chemical additives mixed into plastics during manufacturing — including stabilizers, flame retardants, and plasticizers — can leach out throughout a plastic's lifecycle and pose risks to ecosystems and human health, with microplastics acting as carriers that concentrate and transport these hazardous chemicals.
Plasticisers in the terrestrial environment: sources, occurrence and fate
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This review examines the sources, occurrence, and environmental fate of plasticiser chemicals released from plastics into terrestrial environments. Researchers found that both phthalate and newer non-phthalate plasticisers persist in soil, can be taken up by organisms, and may pose emerging risks as industry transitions to replacement chemicals. The study highlights significant knowledge gaps about how these widely used additives behave once released into land-based ecosystems.
Emerging and legacy plasticisers in coastal and estuarine environments: A review
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This review examined the occurrence and fate of legacy and emerging plasticizers in coastal and estuarine environments, highlighting the chemical risks posed by these plastic additives beyond the physical effects of microplastics themselves.
Plastic and Microplastic Wastes as Environmental Toxicants
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This review covers the environmental accumulation of plastics and microplastics and their toxic chemical additives — including phthalates, flame retardants, bisphenol A, heavy metals, and PCBs — documenting contamination from urban regions to remote ecosystems and food/water supplies.
Environmental and health hazards of chemicals in plastic polymers and products
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Researchers reviewed the environmental and health hazards of chemicals in plastic polymers and products, examining the toxicological profiles of monomers, additives, and degradation products that can leach from plastics into food, water, and the environment. The study identifies numerous plastic-associated chemicals with endocrine-disrupting, carcinogenic, or developmental toxicity potential and calls for more comprehensive safety testing of plastic formulations.
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