Papers

61,005 results
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Article Tier 2

Multifaceted Aquatic Environmental Differences between Nanoplastics and Microplastics: Behavior and Fate

This review argues that nanoplastics and microplastics should be treated as two distinct types of pollutants because they behave very differently in water. Nanoplastics are far more chemically reactive, can cross biological barriers more easily, and may pose greater health risks than their larger microplastic counterparts, making it important for future research to study them separately.

2024 Environment & Health 24 citations
Article Tier 2

Toxic Effects of Nanoplastics on Animals: Comparative Insights into Microplastic Toxicity

This review compares the toxic effects of nanoplastics versus microplastics across mammals, fish, and invertebrates, finding that nanoplastics generally cause more severe harm because their tiny size allows them to cross biological barriers and enter cells more easily. In mammals, nanoplastics can cross the blood-brain barrier and cause brain inflammation, liver and kidney damage, and reproductive problems that can even pass to future generations. The findings suggest that as plastics in the environment break down into ever-smaller particles, the health risks may actually increase.

2025 Environments 6 citations
Article Tier 2

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.

2020 Environmental Pollution 221 citations
Article Tier 2

Microplastic Particle Size Effects in Fish and Shellfish: A Review on Feeding, Digestion, Bioaccumulation, and Seafood Safety Risks

This review examines how microplastic particle size determines ingestion rates, tissue penetration, bioaccumulation, and seafood safety risks in fish and shellfish, with nanoplastics identified as the most concerning size class due to their ability to cross epithelial barriers and accumulate in internal organs.

2025 Science and Technology of Engineering Chemistry and Environmental Protection
Article Tier 2

New insights in to the environmental behavior and ecological toxicity of microplastics

This review provides new insights into how microplastics behave in the environment and their toxic effects on living organisms. Microplastics can absorb and carry other pollutants, making them more dangerous than the plastic alone, and their effects vary based on size, shape, and chemical composition. The review highlights that smaller particles, especially nanoplastics, pose the greatest risk because they can cross biological barriers and enter cells.

2023 Journal of Hazardous Materials Advances 80 citations
Article Tier 2

Differences of microplastics and nanoplastics in urban waters: Environmental behaviors, hazards, and removal

This review compares microplastics and nanoplastics in urban water systems, finding that nanoplastics are harder to remove but potentially more dangerous because their tiny size allows them to penetrate human tissue barriers more easily. The authors evaluate emerging technologies like advanced filtration and chemical oxidation that could help remove these particles from drinking water and wastewater.

2024 Water Research 51 citations
Article Tier 2

Micro- and nanoplastic toxicity on aquatic life: Determining factors

This comprehensive review examined the key factors that determine the toxicity of micro- and nanoplastics to aquatic organisms. Researchers found that harmful effects depend on particle concentration, size, exposure time, shape, polymer type, and the species being exposed. The most commonly reported impacts included disrupted growth, oxidative stress, inflammation, immune system changes, and altered metabolism, with smaller particles generally causing more severe effects.

2019 The Science of The Total Environment 493 citations
Article Tier 2

Impact of Nanoplastics on Marine Life: A Review

This review summarizes current knowledge about the effects of nanoplastics on marine organisms, including impacts on feeding, reproduction, growth, and cellular-level toxicity. Evidence indicates that nanoplastics can be more harmful than larger microplastics due to their ability to cross biological barriers and accumulate in tissues, though more research is needed on real-world exposure levels.

2023 Nature Environment and Pollution Technology 6 citations
Article Tier 2

Nanoplastics in Aquatic Environments: Impacts on Aquatic Species and Interactions with Environmental Factors and Pollutants

This review examines how nanoplastics affect aquatic species, focusing on their cellular and molecular toxicity as well as how environmental factors like temperature, salinity, and co-existing pollutants influence their harmful effects. Researchers found that nanoplastics can be absorbed more easily than larger plastic particles, transfer through food webs, and disrupt cellular function in aquatic organisms. The study highlights the need to consider real-world environmental conditions when assessing nanoplastic risks.

2022 Toxics 104 citations
Article Tier 2

Characterization, occurrence, environmental behaviors, and risks of nanoplastics in the aquatic environment: Current status and future perspectives

This review characterized the occurrence, environmental behavior, and toxicity of nanoplastics in aquatic systems, noting that their small size gives them unique properties — including higher surface reactivity and greater bioavailability — that make them potentially more hazardous than larger microplastics, while also harder to detect.

2021 Fundamental Research 34 citations
Article Tier 2

Unraveling the ecotoxicological effects of micro and nano-plastics on aquatic organisms and human health

This review summarizes the growing body of evidence on how micro- and nanoplastics affect aquatic organisms and, through the food chain, potentially human health. The tiny plastic particles absorb toxic pollutants and pathogens from the water, acting as carriers that deliver these harmful substances into the bodies of fish, shellfish, and other organisms. The review highlights that both direct plastic toxicity and indirect chemical exposure through contaminated seafood pose risks to human consumers.

2024 Frontiers in Environmental Science 23 citations
Article Tier 2

Size-dependent toxicological effects of microplastics: A review

This review synthesizes evidence on how microplastic and nanoplastic particle size influences toxicity across major organ systems, including digestive, reproductive, cardiovascular, respiratory, and nervous systems. Researchers found a broadly consistent pattern in which smaller particles, particularly those under 10 micrometers and at the nanoscale, tend to elicit stronger adverse responses due to enhanced barrier crossing, cellular uptake, and oxidative stress.

2026 Ecotoxicology and Environmental Safety
Article Tier 2

Impacts of Microplastics and Nanoplastics on Biota

This review examined the impacts of microplastics and nanoplastics on organisms across aquatic and terrestrial environments, finding that particle type, shape, size, and density determine environmental distribution patterns while toxicity varies widely across species and exposure conditions.

2022 Microplastics 5 citations
Article Tier 2

Effects of Nanoplastics on Aquatic Organisms

This review summarizes how nanoplastics — plastic particles smaller than 1 micrometer — affect aquatic organisms, highlighting their ability to penetrate cell membranes, accumulate inside organisms, and cause oxidative stress and reproductive harm.

2022 4 citations
Article Tier 2

Nanoplastics impact on marine biota: A review

Researchers reviewed the emerging toxicological literature on nanoplastics in marine ecosystems, distinguishing primary nanoplastics (manufactured at nanoscale) from secondary nanoplastics (fragmented from larger debris), and summarizing how nanoscale size changes particle reactivity and bioavailability in ways that differ substantially from their macro- and microscale counterparts.

2021 Environmental Pollution 213 citations
Article Tier 2

Environmental Fate, Behavior, and Risk Management Approaches of Nanoplastics in the Environment

Researchers reviewed the environmental fate, behavior, and risk management of nanoplastics, which are plastic particles smaller than one micrometer. The study suggests that nanoplastics may pose greater environmental and health risks than larger microplastics due to their nanoscale properties, though significant knowledge gaps remain about their transport, transformation, and long-term ecological effects.

2024 2 citations
Review Tier 2

Nano-Scale Plastic Pollution in the Marine Species: A Review

This review summarizes research on nano-scale plastic pollution in marine species, covering how nanoplastics are produced from larger plastics, how they enter organisms, and the toxic effects they cause in marine life. Because of their tiny size, nanoplastics can penetrate cells and tissues that larger microplastics cannot reach.

2018 Journal of Environmental Science and Pollution Research 1 citations
Article Tier 2

Environmental Impacts of Microplastics and Nanoplastics: A Current Overview

This review examined the environmental impacts of microplastics and nanoplastics across ecosystems, highlighting that these tiny particles behave differently from larger plastic debris and can absorb and transport toxic chemicals. Researchers found evidence that these particles transfer through food chains from lower organisms to higher animals, including humans. The study also explored natural biodegradation processes and current efforts to reduce plastic pollution in the environment.

2021 Frontiers in Microbiology 230 citations
Article Tier 2

Effects of micro- and nanoplastics on aquatic ecosystems: Current research trends and perspectives

This review covers 83 studies on the distribution and toxic effects of micro- and nanoplastics in both marine and freshwater ecosystems worldwide. Researchers found that these tiny particles affected the growth, development, behavior, reproduction, and survival of a wide range of aquatic organisms. The paper identifies key research gaps and suggests future directions for understanding the full ecological impact of plastic pollution in aquatic environments.

2017 Marine Pollution Bulletin 630 citations
Article Tier 2

Comparative Analysis of the Toxicity of Micro‐ and Nanoplastics along with Nanoparticles on the Ecosystem

This comparative review analyzes the toxicity of micro- and nanoplastics across biological systems, examining how particle size, shape, surface chemistry, and polymer type influence toxic potency. The authors synthesize findings from in vitro, in vivo, and ecological studies to support comparative risk assessment.

2024
Article Tier 2

Microplastics in Aquatic Ecosystems: A Review of Ecotoxicological Effects, Exposure Pathways and Trophic Transfer Risks

This review synthesises evidence on the ecotoxicological effects of microplastics in marine, freshwater, and estuarine environments, covering ingestion, bioaccumulation, trophic transfer, and physiological harms across aquatic fauna. It identifies chemical co-contamination and particle size as key modulators of toxicity.

2025 UTTAR PRADESH JOURNAL OF ZOOLOGY
Article Tier 2

Down to size: Exploring the influence of plastic particle Dimensions on physiological and nervous responses in early-stage zebrafish

Researchers compared the effects of microplastics versus nanoplastics on developing zebrafish and found that only the nanoplastics (250 nanometers) were small enough to pass through the protective egg membrane and directly reach the embryo. The nanoplastics caused heart rate changes and neurotoxic effects at the larval stage, while the larger microplastics mainly affected the embryos indirectly from outside. This demonstrates that smaller plastic particles are more dangerous during early development because they can bypass protective barriers.

2024 Environmental Pollution 16 citations
Article Tier 2

Recent advances in toxicological research of nanoplastics in the environment: A review

Researchers systematically reviewed nanoplastic toxicology, finding that surface charge and particle size are the dominant determinants of harm — positively charged and smaller particles penetrate cell membranes more readily — and that adsorbed contaminants released inside organisms often pose greater toxicological risks than the nanoplastic particles themselves.

2019 Environmental Pollution 652 citations
Article Tier 2

Micro/nanoplastics and human health: A review of the evidence, consequences, and toxicity assessment

This review summarizes evidence that micro and nanoplastics have been found in multiple human organs and body fluids, where they can alter cell shape, damage mitochondria, reduce cell survival, and cause oxidative stress. The health effects depend heavily on the size, shape, and chemical makeup of the particles, with smaller nanoplastics generally posing the greatest risk because they penetrate deeper into tissues. The review provides a framework for assessing how dangerous different types of plastic particles are to human health.

2025 Food and Chemical Toxicology 9 citations