Analysis and Toxicty of Micro/Nano Plastics in the Aquatic Environment: New Insights on low dose effects
Year: 2022
Type: conference-paper
Abstract: Plastic pollution is nowadays a global and ubiquitous problem being detected everywhere: marine environment , sand beaches, wastewaters, surface waters, soils, sludges, sediments, biota, food and air.The work plastic comes form the Greek term plastikos, which means that it can remain shaped in various systems.Global plastic production did hit approximately 348 million tonnes in 2017 , being China the largest producer responsible of 27% of worldwide pollution .It is estimated that more than 8300 million tonnes of virgin plastic have been produced to date.Many consumers are not aware that plastic goods are usually made in petrochemical plants.According to the 2019 Centre for International Environmental Law Report, its production will contribute approximately to 850 million tons greenhouse emissions .Plastic is part of our daily life and worldwide we use 4 trillion plastic bags annually and 1 million plastic bottles every minute .Plastics in the environment are divided into Macro-Plastics ( with particles >2.5 cm), Meso-Plastic ( with particles 2.5cm-5mm) , Micro-Plastics (MPs) (with particles between micron-5mm) and Nano-Plastics ( with particles between 1-100nm).Macro-Plastics include everything identified as litter, such as plastic bags, bottles discarded fishing nets, plastic toys among other items and they can be usually observed.MPs are commonly invisible to the naked eye.particularly when mixed with sediment.Macro-Plastics enter the marine environment via rivers, poor waste management or being dumped into the marine waters .MPs are directly released into the water or formed by degradation of Macroplastics.In short, annually between 4 and 12 millions of tonnes of plastics are going into the oceans and most probably in 2050 will exceed the amount of fish The amount of anthropogenic debris in the marine and coastal environments is steadily increasing with an estimation of 270,000 of plastic floating.In consequence international organizations, as well as NGOs recognize marine litter as a global issue of major concern.Plastic litter enters the marine environment from diverse points and diffuse sources and it can be transported through rivers long distances before being deposited in the bottom of seas.Few studies suggest that river litter can contribute up to 40% of all marine litter input, being estimated over 1.2-2.5 million tonnes of plastic every year (1,2).
Author: Barceló, Damià
Language: English
Subfield: Pollution
Field: Environmental Science
Domain: Physical Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W7026717562