Personal protective equipment-derived pollution during Covid-19 era: A critical review of ecotoxicology impacts, intervention strategies, and future challenges.

ABSTRACT: During the COVID-19 pandemic, people used personal protective equipment (PPE) to lessen the spread of the virus. The release of microplastics (MPs) from discarded PPE is a new threat to the long-term health of the environment and poses challenges that are not yet clear. PPE-derived MPs have been found in multi-environmental compartments, e.g., water, sediments, air, and soil across the Bay of Bengal (BoB). As COVID-19 spreads, healthcare facilities use more plastic PPE, polluting aquatic ecosystems. Excessive PPE use releases MPs into the ecosystem, which aquatic organisms ingest, distressing the food chain and possibly causing ongoing health problems in humans. Thus, post-COVID-19 sustainability depends on proper intervention strategies for PPE waste, which have received scholarly interes

SUBMITTER: Hasan M 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10182863 | biostudies-literature | 2023 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature