Papers

61,005 results
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Article Tier 2

Addressing the challenges of new pollutants in China: current status, knowledge gaps, and strategic recommendations

This review examines China's approach to managing new pollutants including persistent organic pollutants, endocrine disruptors, antibiotics, and microplastics, which are characterized by their persistence and tendency to accumulate in living organisms. Researchers identified significant gaps between existing regulations and the complex ecological health risks these substances pose. The study recommends strengthening lifecycle management strategies and improving risk assessment frameworks to better address these emerging environmental threats.

2025 Carbon Research 2 citations
Article Tier 2

Research progress on source, risk assessment, and management of emerging pollutants in drinking water.

This Chinese review covers emerging drinking water pollutants including microplastics, endocrine-disrupting chemicals, per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), and antibiotics, examining their sources, environmental pathways, and health risk frameworks. The authors highlight microplastics as a particularly complex challenge due to their ability to adsorb and co-transport other toxic contaminants into drinking water supplies.

2023 PubMed 2 citations
Article Tier 2

Hazard and Management of Emerging Environmental Pollutants in Food of China

This study reviewed emerging environmental pollutants — including antibiotics, endocrine disruptors, perfluorinated compounds, and microplastics — in major Chinese food categories. Microplastics were detected across seafood, produce, and packaging-associated foods, highlighting widespread dietary exposure pathways.

2022 Strategic Study of CAE 3 citations
Article Tier 2

Emerging Contaminants in the Effluent of Wastewater Should Be Regulated: Which and to What Extent?

This study identified 18 high-risk emerging contaminants in Chinese wastewater treatment plant effluent, including pharmaceuticals and endocrine-disrupting chemicals like bisphenol-A, that need stricter regulation. While focused on chemical contaminants rather than microplastics directly, these pollutants often coexist with microplastics in wastewater and can bind to plastic particle surfaces. Better regulation of wastewater discharge is essential for reducing the combined health risks from microplastics and the chemicals they carry.

2024 Toxics 13 citations
Article Tier 2

Pathways and Countermeasures for Prevention and Control of New Pollutants

Researchers analyzed China's existing legislative framework for controlling emerging contaminants such as microplastics and persistent chemicals, finding that current law focuses on conventional pollutants and safety production while lacking effective governance mechanisms for new pollutants, and proposing a comprehensive legal system drawing on international models and civil liability principles.

2026 Economics Law and Policy
Article Tier 2

Environmental Behaviors, Ecological Risks, and Toxic Mechanisms of Emerging and Legacy Contaminants in China: From Distribution to Management

Researchers reviewed the environmental distribution, ecological risks, and toxic mechanisms of both emerging and legacy contaminants in China's aquatic environments, examining how industrialization and urbanization drive the co-occurrence and combined pollution that threatens ecosystem integrity and human health.

2026 Toxics
Systematic Review Tier 1

A systematic review of emerging contaminants in the Greater Bay Area (GBA), China: Current baselines, knowledge gaps, and research and management priorities

This systematic review examines emerging contaminants, including microplastics, in China's Greater Bay Area. The region's rapid urban and industrial growth has introduced a wide range of pollutants into local ecosystems, raising concerns about what these contaminants mean for both environmental and human health in heavily developed coastal areas.

2022 Environmental Science & Policy 25 citations
Article Tier 2

Analysis of the Spatial Distribution Characteristics of Emerging Pollutants in China

Researchers mapped the spatial distribution of four types of emerging pollutants in China's water environment, including microplastics, endocrine disruptors, brominated flame retardants, and perfluorinated compounds. They found that pollution levels correlate with regional economic development, with the Yangtze River Delta, Pearl River Delta, and Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region showing significantly higher contamination. The study provides a reference framework for emerging pollutant prevention and control across China.

2023 Water 8 citations
Article Tier 2

[Comprehensive Review on Environmental Biogeochemistry of Nonylphenol and Suggestions for the Management of Emerging Contaminants].

This paper is not primarily about microplastics; it is a Chinese-language comprehensive review of nonylphenol — an endocrine-disrupting chemical — covering its environmental concentrations, ecological risks to aquatic organisms, and management strategies in Chinese water bodies. Microplastics are mentioned only briefly as a co-occurring class of emerging contaminants.

2023 PubMed
Article Tier 2

A Review of Emerging Environmental Contaminants of Global Concern

This review covers major categories of emerging environmental contaminants including pharmaceuticals, microplastics, pesticides, and endocrine disruptors, summarizing their sources, ecological effects, and detection methods. Recent advances in sensitive analytical techniques have accelerated the identification and monitoring of these pollutants.

2023 4 citations
Article Tier 2

Microplastic pollution research methodologies, abundance, characteristics and risk assessments for aquatic biota in China

Researchers reviewed the current state of microplastic pollution research in China's aquatic environments, covering detection methods, abundance data, characteristics, and risk assessments for aquatic organisms. The review highlights that China's marine and freshwater environments are seriously polluted by microplastics, with ingestion by aquatic organisms posing potential ecological harm.

2020 Environmental Pollution 154 citations
Article Tier 2

The contamination of microplastics in China's aquatic environment: Occurrence, detection and implications for ecological risk

This review summarized microplastic contamination across marine environments, freshwater systems, and wastewater treatment plants in China, one of the world's top plastic-producing countries. The study highlights that research on how microplastics transfer between connected water environments remains lacking, and the microscale toxicity of microplastics is still poorly understood.

2021 Environmental Pollution 91 citations
Article Tier 2

A critical review of microplastic pollution in urban freshwater environments and legislative progress in China: Recommendations and insights

This critical review examines microplastic pollution across urban freshwater environments in China, synthesizing findings on contamination levels, sources, and ecological effects in a context of rapid urbanization affecting over 800 million urban residents. The authors review legislative progress and provide recommendations for improving monitoring standards, reducing plastic inputs, and aligning Chinese policy with international frameworks.

2020 Critical Reviews in Environmental Science and Technology 75 citations
Article Tier 2

Current practices and future perspectives of microplastic pollution in freshwater ecosystems in China

This review summarizes current knowledge and future research priorities for microplastic pollution in China's freshwater ecosystems, including rivers, lakes, and wetlands, identifying both urban and agricultural sources as major contributors. The authors call for nationally coordinated monitoring, standardized methods, and stronger regulatory frameworks to address the growing microplastic burden in Chinese freshwater systems.

2019 The Science of The Total Environment 251 citations
Article Tier 2

Microplastic Pollution: A Review of Sources, Environmental Fate, Ecotoxicological Impacts, and Mitigation Strategies

This review systematically analyzes microplastic pollution sources, migration patterns, and toxic mechanisms in China and globally, covering how microplastics transfer through environmental compartments, interact with organisms across trophic levels, and what governance measures have been proposed.

2025 Advances in Engineering Technology Research
Article Tier 2

[Toxicity Testing Organisms for Marine Ecotoxicological Research in China].

This review examines the development of marine ecotoxicology in China since the late 1970s, describing the test organisms and methods used to evaluate marine pollutant impacts — evolving from traditional contaminants like heavy metals and petroleum hydrocarbons to emerging pollutants including microplastics and nanomaterials.

2022 PubMed
Article Tier 2

Emerging Pollutants in the Environment

This introductory chapter defines emerging pollutants as unregulated chemicals of ecological and human health concern, categorizing microplastics, endocrine disruptors, pharmaceuticals, and disinfection byproducts as priority contaminants requiring new monitoring and regulatory frameworks.

2025
Article Tier 2

Emerging Contaminants in waste Water: Detection, and Treatment Innovations

This review covers emerging contaminants in wastewater—including pharmaceuticals, endocrine disruptors, microplastics, and antibiotic resistance genes—examining their sources, detection methods using advanced analytical tools, and cutting-edge treatment innovations.

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

Research on Ecological Effects of Microplastics and Removal Methods

This Chinese-language review systematically examines how microplastics contaminate water, soil, and air, damage ecosystems by disrupting water cycles and enriching heavy metals in soil, and surveys available removal technologies. It highlights both the breadth of ecological harm microplastics cause and the practical options for removing them from different environmental compartments.

2023 Highlights in Science Engineering and Technology
Systematic Review Tier 1

Progressing Towards Environmental Health Targets in China: A Systematic Review of Achievements in Air and Water Pollution under the “Ecological Civilization and the Beautiful China” Dream

This systematic review summarizes China's progress in reducing air and water pollution under its environmental health initiatives. The findings are relevant to microplastic concerns because China is a major producer and consumer of plastics, and the review highlights how industrial pollution, including plastic waste, creates widespread environmental contamination with direct consequences for public health.

2020 Research Square (Research Square)
Article Tier 2

Status and characteristics of microplastic pollution in Chinese freshwater environment

This review summarizes research on microplastic distribution, toxic effects on organisms, and interactions with other pollutants in Chinese freshwater environments. The paper calls for strengthened regulation and monitoring of microplastics in China's lakes, rivers, and water supplies.

2023 Applied and Computational Engineering 1 citations
Article Tier 2

Emerging contaminants antibiotic resistance genes and microplastics in the environment: Introduction to 21 review articles published in CREST during 2018–2022

Researchers summarized findings from 21 review articles on antibiotic resistance genes and microplastics published between 2018 and 2022. The overview covers analysis methods, environmental occurrence, transport mechanisms, and ecological and human health risks, as well as strategies for removing antibiotic resistance-related contaminants from wastewater, manure, and sludge.

2022 Critical Reviews in Environmental Science and Technology 47 citations
Article Tier 2

Briefing: A new wave of pollution: the challenge of emerging contaminants

This briefing discusses emerging environmental contaminants—including microplastics, PFAS, and pharmaceutical residues—as a new wave of pollution requiring updated regulatory frameworks and monitoring strategies to protect ecosystem and human health.

2025 Proceedings of the Institution of Civil Engineers - Civil Engineering
Article Tier 2

Environmental and Health Effects of Emerging Contaminants –A Critical Review

Researchers reviewed the environmental and health effects of emerging contaminants including pharmaceuticals, personal care products, and microplastics commonly found in water and soil samples. The study suggests that these contaminants can cause endocrine disruption in exposed organisms and may contribute to the spread of antibiotic-resistant bacteria in the environment.

2023 International Journal of Advanced Science and Engineering 9 citations