Papers

61,005 results
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Article Tier 2

Research progress on environmental occurrence of microplastics and their interaction mechanism with organic pollutants

This review summarizes how microplastics in the environment interact with organic pollutants—adsorbing, carrying, and releasing them. Microplastics act as mobile carriers for persistent organic chemicals, altering their distribution and toxicity in ecosystems and the organisms, including humans, that consume them.

2021 Scientia Sinica Chimica 4 citations
Article Tier 2

Pollution in the Marine Environment: Plastics, Microplastics and Organic Pollutants

This study characterizes marine debris collected from coastal waters, analyzing the types and origins of plastic and organic pollutants found in the marine environment. It combines debris characterization with organic pollutant analysis to understand the compound contamination burden faced by marine ecosystems.

2019 Repositorio Institucional de la Universidad de Alicante (Universidad de Alicante)
Article Tier 2

Marine Litter Plastics and Microplastics and Their Toxic Chemicals Components

This review examined the chemical hazards posed by marine plastic litter and microplastics, focusing on persistent organic pollutants, flame retardants, plasticisers, and endocrine-disrupting additives that can leach from plastic polymers into marine food webs. The authors concluded that both the physical and chemical toxicity of marine plastics represent a serious and undercharacterised threat to biodiversity, ecosystem functioning, and human health via seafood consumption.

2020 22 citations
Article Tier 2

Microplastics in marine systems: A review of sources and sinks, typical environmental behaviors, and biological effects

This review summarizes how microplastics enter marine systems, carry heavy metals and organic pollutants, and release harmful additives as they degrade in the ocean. These contaminated particles are eaten by marine organisms and move up the food chain, ultimately posing potential health risks to humans who consume seafood.

2025 Marine Pollution Bulletin 11 citations
Article Tier 2

Removed Due to Policy Violations

This paper discusses how microplastics released into the sea environment accumulate organic pollutants and increase their concentration relative to the surrounding water, amplifying exposure risks for marine life. The review highlights microplastics as vectors that concentrate and transport toxic chemicals through marine food webs.

2023
Article Tier 2

Toxic Chemicals and Persistent Organic Pollutants Associated with Micro-and Nanoplastics Pollution

Researchers reviewed how micro- and nanoplastics act as carriers for toxic chemical additives and persistent organic pollutants — like flame retardants and pesticides — making these contaminants more available and harmful once they enter food chains and human bodies. The review identifies major gaps in understanding how these chemicals detach from plastic particles inside living organisms and what health effects they cause.

2022 Chemical Engineering Journal Advances 218 citations
Systematic Review Tier 1

Microplastic-sorbed chemicals: a threat from sand and surface water

This systematic review examines harmful chemicals that attach to microplastic particles found in beach sand and surface water. The findings are concerning for human health because microplastics can act as carriers for toxic substances like pesticides and heavy metals, potentially increasing our exposure to these pollutants through contaminated water and recreational beach use.

2023 Population Medicine
Review Tier 2

The chemical behaviors of microplastics in marine environment: A review

This review summarized interactions between microplastics and organic pollutants and metals in the marine environment, covering sorption behavior across polymer types, the role of degradation in altering sorption capacity, and global monitoring data on pollutant concentrations on marine plastics. The authors conclude that microplastic type, pollutant properties, and environmental conditions all strongly influence chemical accumulation on plastic surfaces.

2019 Marine Pollution Bulletin 654 citations
Article Tier 2

Marine microplastics as vectors of major ocean pollutants and its hazards to the marine ecosystem and humans

Researchers reviewed how microplastics in the ocean act as "hitchhikers" for other pollutants — absorbing and carrying heavy metals, pesticides, and chemicals into marine food webs and ultimately toward humans. While direct proof of microplastic harm to humans is still limited, the accumulated evidence of toxic chemical transport through seafood and drinking water raises serious concern.

2021 Progress in Earth and Planetary Science 566 citations
Article Tier 2

Effects of Microplastic Pollution on Marine Environment: a Mini Review

This review examines the formation, distribution, and ecological impacts of microplastics in marine environments, highlighting how their high adsorption capacity enables them to concentrate persistent organic pollutants and how long-term tissue accumulation poses risks to marine organisms and human health.

2023 Journal of Zoology and Systematics 2 citations
Article Tier 2

Les microplastiques en milieu marin : supports de contaminants chimiques - Étude bibliographique

This French bibliographic review examined 121 papers on microplastics as carriers of chemical contaminants in marine environments, synthesizing what is known about how pollutants adsorb to and desorb from plastic surfaces. The ability of microplastics to concentrate persistent organic pollutants like PCBs and pesticides from seawater and potentially release them to marine organisms is a key concern.

2015 Institutional Archive of Ifremer (French Research Institute for Exploitation of the Sea)
Article Tier 2

Potential Effects of Persistent Organic Contaminants on Marine Biota: A Review on Recent Research

This review examined the effects of persistent organic contaminants including microplastics, pharmaceuticals, pesticides, PCBs, and PAHs on marine biota, synthesizing evidence of direct and indirect ecological impacts across multiple chemical classes.

2021 Water 48 citations
Article Tier 2

Organic Contaminants and Interactions with Micro- and Nano-Plastics in the Aqueous Environment: Review of Analytical Methods

This review examined laboratory methods for detecting and measuring trace organic chemicals that bind onto micro- and nanoplastic particles in water. Microplastics can act as sponges for toxic chemicals, and accurate measurement methods are needed to assess the true exposure risk they pose.

2021 Molecules 19 citations
Article Tier 2

Sorption of representative organic contaminants on microplastics: Effects of chemical physicochemical properties, particle size, and biofilm presence

This study examined how organic pollutants like flame retardants and industrial chemicals attach to microplastics in saltwater conditions. Smaller microplastic particles absorbed more contaminants per unit weight, and natural biofilms growing on the plastic surfaces changed how much pollution they could carry. The findings help explain how microplastics act as carriers of toxic chemicals through the environment and potentially into the food chain.

2023 Ecotoxicology and Environmental Safety 69 citations
Article Tier 2

Trophic transfer of microplastics and mixed contaminants in the marine food web and implications for human health

This review examines how microplastics and the chemicals they carry transfer through marine food webs from lower to higher trophic levels, and what this means for human health given that people consume marine fish and seafood. It identifies microplastics as a vector for bioaccumulation of persistent organic pollutants in ways that ultimately reach humans.

2018 OSF Preprints (OSF Preprints)
Article Tier 2

Microplastics pollution in the marine environment: A review of sources, impacts and mitigation

This review summarizes how millions of tons of plastic waste enter the oceans each year and break into microplastics that absorb pollutants, heavy metals, and chemical additives. These contaminated particles pose risks to human health when they enter the food chain through seafood consumption.

2024 Marine Pollution Bulletin 69 citations
Article Tier 2

Microplastics as carriers of toxic pollutants: Source, transport, and toxicological effects

This review summarizes how microplastics absorb and carry toxic pollutants like persistent organic pollutants, heavy metals, and antibiotics through the environment, concentrating these harmful chemicals as they move through ecosystems. When organisms ingest these contaminated particles, the pollutants can build up in the food chain and eventually reach humans, making microplastics not just a physical hazard but also a chemical delivery system.

2023 Environmental Pollution 261 citations
Article Tier 2

Microplastics in aquatic systems: A comprehensive review of its distribution, environmental interactions, and health risks

This review summarizes how microplastics accumulate in oceans, rivers, and lakes, where they absorb toxic chemicals like heavy metals and persistent organic pollutants and carry them up through the food chain. An estimated 5.25 trillion plastic particles float in global oceans, releasing dissolved carbon that disrupts microbial ecosystems, with ultimate risks to human health through seafood consumption and drinking water.

2024 Environmental Science and Pollution Research 62 citations
Article Tier 2

Co-occurrence of microplastics and organic/inorganic contaminants in organisms living in aquatic ecosystems: A review

This review examines studies that measured both microplastics and chemical pollutants (organic and inorganic) in aquatic organisms at the same time. A positive correlation was found between microplastic levels and certain pollutants in organisms, suggesting microplastics may help transport contaminants into living things. The findings raise concerns that seafood contaminated with microplastics could also carry higher levels of toxic chemicals into the human diet.

2023 Marine Pollution Bulletin 72 citations
Article Tier 2

Microplastics as vectors for bioaccumulation of hydrophobic organic chemicals in the marine environment: A state-of-the-science review

This state-of-the-science review examined whether microplastics serve as vectors for bioaccumulation of hydrophobic organic chemicals in marine organisms. The study found that while microplastics can carry high concentrations of sorbed chemicals, their relative importance as an exposure route compared to other pathways like water and food remains an active area of research with varying conclusions depending on environmental conditions.

2016 Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry 476 citations
Article Tier 2

Microplastics as a Serious Challenge in Marine Environment

This review summarizes how microplastics accumulate in marine environments, acting as carriers for other toxic chemicals and posing health risks to marine organisms and the humans who eat them. The paper highlights the dual threat of microplastics as both physical contaminants and vectors for co-pollutants.

2023 Zenodo (CERN European Organization for Nuclear Research)
Article Tier 2

Interactions between microplastics and organic pollutants: Effects on toxicity, bioaccumulation, degradation, and transport

This review examines how microplastics interact with organic pollutants like pesticides and industrial chemicals in the environment. Researchers found that microplastics can absorb these pollutants and alter their toxicity, bioaccumulation, and transport, making the combined effects of microplastics and chemical contaminants potentially more harmful than either would be alone.

2020 The Science of The Total Environment 399 citations
Systematic Review Tier 1

A systematic review of microplastics in the environment: Sampling, separation, characterization and coexistence mechanisms with pollutants

Massive microplastic pollution was documented across Africa, Asia, India, South Africa, North America, and Europe, with MPs acting as carriers of heavy metals that enter organisms and cause harm. The adsorption capacity of organic pollutants onto microplastics correlated with hydrophobicity, surface area, and functional group characteristics.

2022 The Science of The Total Environment 71 citations
Article Tier 2

Determination of organochlorine pesticides adsorbed on plastic pellets

Researchers analyzed organochlorine pesticides adsorbed onto plastic pellets found in coastal environments, contributing to understanding of how plastic debris accumulates and concentrates toxic chemicals. Plastic pellets, a type of microplastic, can act as carriers bringing persistent organic pollutants into marine food webs.

2016 RUNG