Papers

Exposome and unhealthy aging: environmental drivers from air pollution to occupational exposures

Researchers reviewed how environmental exposures over a lifetime — including air pollution, pesticides, heavy metals, and other toxicants — accelerate aging and raise the risk of cardiovascular disease, Alzheimer's, and Parkinson's disease, in part by crossing the blood-brain barrier and triggering inflammation. Understanding these exposome-aging links is key to developing strategies that protect brain and heart health as populations grow older.

Atmospheric Microplastics: Inputs and Outputs

This review describes how microplastics move between the Earth's surface and the atmosphere, with an estimated 8.6 megatons per year floating in the air above oceans alone. Clothing fibers are the biggest contributor to outdoor airborne microplastics, while indoor sources include furniture fabrics, ventilation systems, and human movement. The findings are significant because airborne microplastics can travel thousands of kilometers and are inhaled daily, making air a major but understudied route of human exposure.

Wetland Removal Mechanisms for Emerging Contaminants

This review examines how natural and constructed wetlands remove emerging contaminants, including pharmaceuticals, personal care products, and microplastics, from water. Researchers found that wetlands use a combination of physical, chemical, and biological processes to transform and trap these pollutants. The study highlights wetlands as a promising, low-cost approach for treating emerging contaminants that conventional wastewater systems may miss.

The Complex Dynamics of Microplastic Migration through Different Aquatic Environments: Subsidies for a Better Understanding of Its Environmental Dispersion

This review explores how microplastics move through different aquatic environments, from rivers and lakes to estuaries and oceans, focusing on the physical properties that drive their transport. Researchers found that factors like particle density, size, shape, and biofouling all influence where microplastics accumulate and how far they travel. Understanding these migration dynamics is essential for predicting contamination patterns and designing effective cleanup strategies.

Indoor Airborne Microplastics: Human Health Importance and Effects of Air Filtration and Turbulence

This review examines airborne microplastics in indoor environments, where people spend most of their time and where microplastic concentrations are higher than outdoors. Most indoor airborne microplastics are textile fibers small enough to be inhaled deep into the lungs, where they can enter the bloodstream and reach other organs. The authors discuss how air filtration and airflow patterns affect indoor microplastic levels, noting that breathing in microplastics may pose greater health risks than consuming them in food and drink.

Causes, Responses, and Implications of Anthropogenic versus Natural Flow Intermittence in River Networks

Researchers reviewed the differences between natural and human-caused flow intermittence in rivers, examining how anthropogenic drivers such as dams and water diversions alter drying patterns compared to natural seasonal cycles. They found that human-caused flow intermittence produces distinct ecological impacts because the affected organisms have not evolved adaptations to these artificial drying regimes. The study emphasizes that failing to distinguish between natural and anthropogenic intermittence could undermine river management and increase risks to downstream ecosystems.

Occurrence of microplastics and heavy metals accumulation in native oysters Crassostrea Gasar in the Paranaguá estuarine system, Brazil

Researchers examined native oysters from the Paranagua estuarine system in Brazil for both microplastic contamination and heavy metal accumulation. They found high levels of microplastics in all oyster samples, along with elevated concentrations of several heavy metals, and observed potential interactions between the two pollutant types. The study raises concerns about the combined exposure risks from microplastics and heavy metals in seafood harvested from polluted estuaries.

Bivalve Impacts in Freshwater and Marine Ecosystems

This review examines the ecological roles of bivalve molluscs in both freshwater and marine ecosystems, including their contributions to nutrient cycling, habitat creation, food web dynamics, and water filtration. The study highlights that bivalves are important ecosystem engineers whose filter-feeding behavior makes them particularly relevant for understanding microplastic uptake and transport in aquatic environments.

The Importance of Biofilms on Microplastic Particles in Their Sinking Behavior and the Transfer of Invasive Organisms between Ecosystems

This review explores how biofilm formation on microplastic surfaces, known as the plastisphere, affects the transport and ecological impact of plastic particles in marine environments. Researchers found that biofilm colonization can cause microplastics to sink from the ocean surface, altering their distribution through the water column, while also providing a habitat that protects invasive microbial species. The study suggests that some plastisphere organisms with plastic-degrading abilities could potentially be harnessed for marine pollution cleanup strategies.

Co-exposure to Hexavalent Chromium and Polyamide Microplastics Alters Growth, Hematology, Histopathology of Tissues and Immune Genes Expression in Striped Catfish (Pangasianodon hypophthalmus)

Assessment of Groundwater Contamination in the Southeastern Coast of Brazil: A Potential Threat to Human Health in Marica Municipality

Researchers assessed groundwater contamination in Marica Municipality along Brazil's southeastern coast, finding that rapid urbanization and inadequate sanitation have led to significant sewage pollution. The study suggests that elevated levels of dissolved organic carbon, nutrients, and bacteria in the aquifers pose a potential threat to public health, since groundwater serves as the primary freshwater source for local residents.

Microplastics in Freshwater River in Rio de Janeiro and Its Role as a Source of Microplastic Pollution in Guanabara Bay, SE Brazil

Researchers found widespread microplastic contamination in three rivers flowing into Guanabara Bay, Brazil, with an average of 3,651 particles per cubic meter dominated by fibers, identifying these freshwater systems as major sources of coastal microplastic pollution.

Prediction of the aggregation rate of nanoparticles in porous media in the diffusion-controlled regime

Researchers used computer simulations to model how nanoparticles clump together as they move through soil pores, finding that random particle motion (diffusion) drives aggregation far more than water flow does. This matters for predicting how nanoplastics and other nanoparticles spread and accumulate in underground environments.

The Impact of Microplastics on Global Food Production: A Brief Overview of This Complex Sector

This overview examines how microplastics affect global food production across terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems. Researchers report that microplastics can alter soil properties, harm organisms including livestock and pollinators, and accumulate through the food chain to humans. The study suggests that microplastic contamination of food systems is a growing concern that parallels the urgency of climate change.

Plastic microfibre pollution: how important is clothes’ laundering?

Researchers critically evaluated claims that clothes laundering is the dominant source of plastic microfibers in the ocean, reviewing mass flux estimates and finding that while laundering is a meaningful contributor, the 90% figure commonly cited in media is not well supported by the available data.

Biochar Reduces Nanoplastics Uptake by Lettuce and Alleviates Its Toxicity to the Plant

Researchers tested whether biochar could reduce nanoplastic uptake by lettuce and found that iron-doped biochar was particularly effective, lowering nanoplastic concentrations in leaves by approximately 60%. Both regular and iron-doped biochar also helped alleviate nanoplastic-induced metabolic disturbances in the plants and partially restored soil enzyme activity.

The transfer and resulting negative effects of nano- and micro-plastics through the aquatic trophic web—A discreet threat to human health

Researchers reviewed how micro- and nanoplastics move through aquatic food webs — from small organisms like plankton up through fish to humans — noting that while hundreds of species are known to ingest plastic particles, it remains difficult to distinguish particles eaten directly from those consumed indirectly through prey. The review highlights a critical gap in understanding how much plastic actually transfers between trophic levels and what that means for human health risks from seafood consumption.

Grasping the supremacy of microplastic in the environment to understand its implications and eradication: a review

This review comprehensively examines microplastic sources, fate, and ecological impacts on living organisms, including an analysis of microplastics in Indian rivers, and evaluates current eradication strategies while recommending green innovative technologies for a microplastic-free environment.

Microplastic pollution across the Brazilian coastline: Evidence from the MICROMar project, the largest coastal survey in the Global South

As part of Brazil's MICROMar project, researchers analysed 4,134 samples from 1,024 beaches along approximately 7,500 km of Brazilian coastline to produce the largest standardised coastal microplastic survey in the Global South. Microplastics were found ubiquitously, with concentration patterns linked to population density, coastal morphology, and river inputs.

Paint fragments as polluting microplastics: A brief review

This brief review synthesized current knowledge on paint fragments as a significant but frequently overlooked source of microplastic pollution in the ocean. Paint particles contain diverse polymers including polyurethanes, polyesters, and epoxies, and are often excluded from microplastic audits despite their prevalence in marine environments.

Biodeterioration and Chemical Corrosion of Concrete in the Marine Environment: Too Complex for Prediction

This review examines the chemical degradation and biodeterioration of concrete in marine environments, covering reactions with chloride, sulfate, and magnesium ions as well as acid-producing microbial activity. The review highlights the difficulty of predicting degradation rates due to the complex interplay of biological and chemical factors.

Nanoplastics in aquatic systems - are they more hazardous than microplastics?

This review evaluates whether nanoplastics — plastic particles smaller than 1000 nm — are more hazardous than microplastics, examining current evidence on their environmental concentrations, behavior, and toxicity. It concludes that nanoplastics pose distinct concerns due to greater bioavailability and cellular uptake potential, while noting that adequate standard detection methods do not yet exist.

Interfacial rheology insights: particle texture and Pickering foam stability

Researchers studied the interfacial rheology of particle-laden interfaces stabilized with fumed and spherical colloidal silica particles, finding that particle texture significantly affects interfacial mechanical properties and the resulting stability of Pickering foams.

Microplastics and attached microorganisms in sediments of the Vitória bay estuarine system in SE Brazil