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Microplastics and Environmental Health: Assessing Environmental Hazards in Haiti
Summary
This study assesses microplastic contamination in Haiti, examining how plastic particles enter ecosystems and serve as carriers for chemical pollutants in a country with limited waste management capacity. The findings illustrate how microplastics compound environmental and public health risks in low-income settings.
Microplastics (MP) refer to all plastic particles that are less than 5 mm in size. Over the past decades, several studies have highlighted the impact of microplastics (MP) on living organisms. In addition to being pollutants themselves, these synthetic polymers also act as vectors for the transport of various types of chemicals in natural ecosystems. MP has been ubiquitously detected in a wide range of shapes, polymers, sizes and concentrations in marine water, freshwater, agroecosystems, atmospheric, food and water environments. Drinking water, biota, and other remote places. According to the World Bank, over 80% of the world's marine litter is plastic and the concentration of litter on Caribbean beaches is often high, with a high presence of single-use plastics and food containers. In its work, the World Health Organization (WHO) suggests an in-depth assessment of microplastics present in the environment and their potential consequences on human health, following the publication of an analysis of the state of research on microplastics in drinking water. It also calls for reducing plastic pollution to protect the environment and reduce human exposure. In Haiti, the bay of Port-au-Prince is the natural receptacle of all the urban effluents generated by human activities in the Metropolitan Zone. This urban wastewater carries household waste, sludge from pit latrines and sewage, industrial wastewater which largely contributes to the pollution of the bay. Furthermore, 1, 673, 750 tonnes per year of household waste, including 93, 730 tonnes of plastic waste, are not collected. What are the environmental dangers represented by the MP contained in those wastes for living organisms in exposed tropical ecosystems? The purpose of this paper is: (i) to do a bibliographical review of the physical and chemical properties, as well as the toxicological profile of MP, (ii) to identify the environmental hazards associated with MP contained in urban waste in the metropolitan area of Port-au-Prince.