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Microplastics in aquatic environment: Challenges and perspectives

Chemosphere 2021 298 citations

AI summary Read the abstract

This review provides a comprehensive overview of microplastic pollution in water environments, covering sources, transport, health effects, detection methods, and control strategies. Microplastics enter waterways from everyday plastic products, industrial discharge, and wastewater treatment plants, where aquatic organisms ingest them and pass them up the food chain. The review highlights the urgent need for better analytical techniques and global policies to reduce microplastic contamination that ultimately reaches human food and drinking water.

Study Type Environmental

The occurrence of microplastics in the aquatic environment has become a growing concern globally. Microplastics pose a hazard to the ecological system, and their presence, particularly in the water, has an adverse impact on human health and the ecosystem. Microplastics are released into the environment directly from everyday used plastic items, degradation of plastics, industries, and wastewater treatment plants. Once these contaminants enter the water, aquatic life feeds on them, and microplastics enter the food chain and cause severe health hazards. An assessment of microplastics' ecological risks is essential; however, it is challenging in the present scenario due to limited information available. To fill these knowledge gaps, this paper comprehensively reviews the sources and transport of microplastics in the water environment and their environmental and health effects, global policy frameworks, analytical techniques for microplastic detection, and control strategies to prevent microplastics release in the aquatic environment.

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