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Potential transmission of SARS-CoV-2 through microplastics in sewage: A wastewater-based epidemiological review
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This review investigated whether microplastics in sewage systems could serve as carriers for SARS-CoV-2 transmission, finding that the virus can adsorb onto microplastic surfaces in wastewater, suggesting a potential but understudied pathway for viral spread through water systems.
In light of the current COVID-19 pandemic caused by the virus SARS-CoV-2, there is an urgent need to identify and investigate the various pathways of transmission. In addition to contact and aerosol transmission of the virus, this review investigated the possibility of its transmission via microplastics found in sewage. Wastewater-based epidemiological studies on the virus have confirmed its presence and persistence in both influent sewage as well as treated ones. The hypothesis behind the study is that the huge amount of microplastics, especially Polyvinyl Chloride and Polyethylene particles released into the open waters from sewage can become a good substrate and vector for microbes, especially Polyvinyl Chloride and Polyethylene particles, imparting stability to microbes and aiding the "plastisphere" formation. A bibliometric analysis highlights the negligence of research toward plastispheres and their presence in sewage. The ubiquity of microplastics and their release along with the virus into the open waters increases the risk of viral plastispheres. These plastispheres may be ingested by aquatic organisms facilitating reverse zoonosis and the commercial organisms already reported with accumulating microplastics through the food chain poses a risk to human populations as well. Reliance of high population density areas on open waters served by untreated sewage in economically less developed countries might bring back viral transmission.
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Researchers found SARS-CoV-2 genetic material on the surface of microplastics collected from a hospital wastewater treatment plant in Iran, suggesting that microplastics can carry virus particles through water systems. The most common types of microplastics in the wastewater acted as carriers for the virus RNA. This study highlights a previously underappreciated risk: microplastics in wastewater could help spread infectious pathogens into rivers and other water sources that communities rely on.
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Microplastics were shown to serve as a reservoir and carrier for viral particles in aquatic environments, with plastic surfaces harboring and potentially protecting viruses from degradation. This raises concerns about microplastics facilitating the environmental spread and persistence of waterborne pathogens.
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This study found that SARS-CoV-2 virus particles can attach to microfibers shed from washing synthetic textiles, raising the possibility that plastic microfibers in wastewater could carry viral particles. The findings highlight an understudied intersection between microplastic pollution and pathogen transmission in sewage systems.
Microplastics and Macroplastic Debris as Potential Physical Vectors of SARS-CoV-2: A Hypothetical Overview with Implications for Public Health
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This hypothesis paper proposes that macro- and microplastic debris could act as physical vectors for SARS-CoV-2 transmission, reviewing evidence on viral persistence on plastic surfaces and the surge in pandemic-related plastic waste. The authors argue that plastic pollution represents an underexamined dimension of COVID-19 transmission risk, particularly in coastal and aquatic environments.
Viruses in the era of microplastics and plastispheres: Analytical methods, advances and future directions
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This review examines how viruses interact with microplastics in the environment, including how viral particles attach to plastic surfaces and what this means for human and environmental health. Microplastics can carry viruses across water environments, and the biofilms that form on plastic surfaces create conditions for viral survival and gene transfer. These findings raise concerns that microplastics could serve as vehicles for spreading disease-causing viruses through water systems.
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