Papers

20 results
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Article Tier 2

Integrative Evaluation of the Ecological Hazards by Microplastics and Heavy Metals in Wetland Ecosystem

Researchers conducted an integrative ecological hazard assessment of microplastics combined with heavy metals, evaluating their combined toxicity to aquatic organisms. The study found that co-contamination with heavy metals and microplastics poses greater ecological risk than either pollutant alone.

2023 Bulletin of Environmental Contamination and Toxicology 11 citations
Article Tier 2

Fate of microplastics and emerging contaminants: Mechanisms of interactions, bioaccumulation and combined toxicity to aquatic organisms

This review summarizes how microplastics interact with other emerging contaminants in water, finding that microplastics can absorb pollutants at concentrations up to a million times higher than surrounding water and carry them into living organisms. The combined toxicity of microplastics plus these hitchhiking chemicals is often greater than either alone, and these pollutants can reach humans through the food chain.

2025 Marine Pollution Bulletin 11 citations
Article Tier 2

Microplastics aggravate the bioaccumulation and toxicity of coexisting contaminants in aquatic organisms: A synergistic health hazard

Researchers conducted a quantitative meta-analysis of 870 endpoints from 40 studies to evaluate whether microplastics increase the bioaccumulation and toxicity of co-occurring contaminants in aquatic organisms. They found that microplastics significantly increased co-contaminant bioaccumulation by 31% and exacerbated toxicity by 18%, with effects manifesting as increased oxidative stress, endocrine disruption, and immunotoxicity. The study confirms that microplastics act as vectors that amplify the hazards of other environmental pollutants.

2021 Journal of Hazardous Materials 81 citations
Article Tier 2

The Unseen Threat of the Synergistic Effects of Microplastics and Heavy Metals in Aquatic Environments: A Critical Review

This review examines how microplastics and heavy metals interact in water environments, finding that microplastics can attract and concentrate toxic metals on their surfaces through various chemical forces. This combination effect is a concern for human health because contaminated microplastics carrying heavy metals can be consumed through seafood, delivering a double dose of pollutants.

2024 Current Pollution Reports 81 citations
Article Tier 2

A review on the combined toxicological effects of microplastics and their attached pollutants

Researchers reviewed how microplastics act as carriers for other environmental pollutants — including heavy metals and persistent organic chemicals — and how these combinations produce toxic effects in organisms that are more severe than either contaminant alone. The findings highlight a complex, layered toxicity problem that affects microbes, invertebrates, and vertebrates across marine and terrestrial environments.

2025 Emerging contaminants 20 citations
Article Tier 2

Mixtures of Micro and Nanoplastics and Contaminants of Emerging Concern in Environment: What We Know about Their Toxicological Effects

This review examines what is known about the toxicological effects of micro- and nanoplastic mixtures combined with other emerging contaminants in the environment. Researchers found that most studies fail to calculate proper interaction parameters, making it difficult to determine whether combined exposures produce additive, synergistic, or antagonistic effects on organisms.

2024 Toxics 14 citations
Article Tier 2

Single and joint exposure to nanoplastics and bisphenols: a comparative assessment of in vitro hazards

This study compared the individual and combined toxicity of nanoplastics and bisphenol compounds in biological test systems, finding synergistic effects at certain exposure combinations. The results indicate that co-exposure to these two common plastic-associated contaminants may be more harmful than either alone.

2024 Portuguese National Funding Agency for Science, Research and Technology (RCAAP Project by FCT)
Article Tier 2

Toxicological interactions of microplastics/nanoplastics and environmental contaminants: Current knowledge and future perspectives

This review examines how the combined presence of micro- and nanoplastics with other environmental contaminants like heavy metals, pesticides, and pharmaceuticals affects toxicity. Researchers found that plastic particles can alter the bioavailability and toxic effects of co-occurring pollutants, sometimes increasing harm to organisms, which complicates environmental risk assessment.

2020 Journal of Hazardous Materials 501 citations
Article Tier 2

Co-occurrence and Interaction of Microplastics with Heavy Metals

This review examines the co-occurrence of microplastics and heavy metals in aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems, synthesizing evidence on how MPs adsorb metals, alter their bioavailability, and facilitate their transfer up food chains, compounding toxicological risks beyond either pollutant alone.

2025
Article Tier 2

The triple exposure nexus of microplastic particles, plastic-associated chemicals, and environmental pollutants from a human health perspective

This review introduces the idea of a "triple exposure" from microplastics: the physical plastic particles themselves, the chemicals built into the plastic during manufacturing, and environmental pollutants that stick to plastic surfaces. All three exposure types can enter the human body through food, water, and air, and may have combined health effects that are worse than any single exposure alone. The authors argue that health risk assessments need to account for all three factors together.

2024 Environment International 105 citations
Article Tier 2

A critical review on the interactions of microplastics with heavy metals: Mechanism and their combined effect on organisms and humans

This review examines how microplastics interact with heavy metals in the environment and what their combined effects mean for organisms and human health. Microplastics absorb heavy metals from surrounding water and soil, and when ingested, the acidic conditions in the gut can cause those metals to be released inside the body. The combination of microplastics and heavy metals may be more toxic than either pollutant alone, creating a compounded health risk.

2021 The Science of The Total Environment 545 citations
Article Tier 2

Synergistic Impacts of Microplastics and Heavy Metals in Aquatic Environments and Strategies for Mitigation

This review examines the combined pollution of aquatic habitats by heavy metals and microplastics, covering their widespread distribution from polar regions to deep-sea sediments and the ecological risks of their interaction. The authors discuss adsorption of heavy metals onto microplastic surfaces, combined toxicity to aquatic organisms, and mitigation strategies for managing this dual contamination in water bodies.

2024 Journal of Indian Fisheries Association
Article Tier 2

The Individual and Combined Effects of Microplastics and Heavy Metals on Marine Organisms

This review summarizes how microplastics and heavy metals individually and together affect marine organisms. Microplastics can absorb heavy metals from the water and carry them into organisms, creating combined toxic effects that are often worse than either pollutant alone. Since these contaminants accumulate up the food chain and end up in seafood, this combined pollution poses a potential threat to human health through diet.

2025 Microplastics 8 citations
Article Tier 2

Toxicity evaluation of micro- and nanoplastic particles, with co-exposure to metal ions on human intestinal models

This study exposed human intestinal cell models to both micro- and nanoplastic particles combined with metal ions to test combined toxicity effects. The results showed that co-exposure can amplify harmful effects on intestinal cells compared to either contaminant alone. This is relevant to human health because people are simultaneously exposed to microplastics and heavy metals through food, meaning the gut may face synergistic stressors that single-contaminant studies would miss.

2023 SPIRE - Sciences Po Institutional REpository
Article Tier 2

Microplastic interactions with co-existing pollutants in water environments: Synergistic or antagonistic roles on their removal through current remediation technologies

This review examines how microplastics interact with other pollutants like heavy metals, pesticides, and pharmaceuticals in water, often making each contaminant harder to remove during treatment. The interactions between microplastics and co-existing pollutants can produce unpredictable combined toxic effects that are worse than either pollutant alone. Understanding these interactions is important because real-world water contamination involves mixtures, not single pollutants, and current treatment methods may not adequately address these combinations.

2025 Journal of Environmental Management 8 citations
Article Tier 2

Microplastic in Water System: A Review of Their Impact on Environment, Current Perspective and Future Direction

This review highlights hazardous chemicals associated with micro- and nanoplastics, including plastic additives and absorbed environmental pollutants, and their potential health risks after entering the food chain. It frames microplastics as markers of a new geological era and calls for improved monitoring and regulation of plastic-associated toxicants.

2025 Zenodo (CERN European Organization for Nuclear Research)
Article Tier 2

Microplastic in Water System: A Review of Their Impact on Environment, Current Perspective and Future Direction

This review highlights hazardous chemicals associated with micro- and nanoplastics, including plastic additives and absorbed environmental pollutants, and their potential health risks after entering the food chain. It frames microplastics as markers of a new geological era and calls for improved monitoring and regulation of plastic-associated toxicants.

2025 Zenodo (CERN European Organization for Nuclear Research)
Article Tier 2

Review on the relationship between microplastics and heavy metals in freshwater near mining areas

This review synthesized knowledge on the interaction between microplastics and heavy metals in freshwater environments, covering adsorption mechanisms, combined toxicity, and the role of microplastics as metal vectors. Co-contamination was found to amplify ecological risks beyond what either stressor causes alone.

2024 Environmental Science and Pollution Research 6 citations
Article Tier 2

Concomitant presence of nanosized plastics and metal(loid)s: is there cause for alarm? State-of-the-art and recommendations for future studies

This review assessed the co-occurrence of nanoplastics and metal(loid)s in the environment, finding that nanoplastics can adsorb and transport heavy metals, potentially amplifying toxicity through combined exposure and calling for integrated risk assessment approaches.

2023 TrAC Trends in Analytical Chemistry 6 citations
Article Tier 2

Mixed Contaminants: Occurrence, Interactions, Toxicity, Detection, and Remediation

This review examines how mixed environmental contaminants, including microplastics, heavy metals, pesticides, and pharmaceuticals, interact when present together in the environment. The study highlights that pollutant mixtures can produce synergistic toxic effects that are greater than the sum of individual pollutants, making combined contamination a more complex risk than single-pollutant assessments suggest.

2022 Molecules 67 citations