Environmental risks of disposable face masks during the pandemic of COVID-19: Challenges and management.

ABSTRACT: Since the COVID-19 outbreak in early 2020, face mask (FM) has been recognized as an effective measure to reduce the infection, increasing its consumption across the world. However, the large amount of at-home FM usage changed traditional medical waste management practices, lack of improper management. Currently, few studies estimate FM consumption at a global scale, not to say a comprehensive investigation on the environmental risks of FM from a life cycle perspective. Therefore, global FM consumption and its associated environmental risks are clarified in the present study. Our result shows that 449.5 billion FMs were consumed from January 2020 to March 2021, with an average of 59.4 FMs per person worldwide. This review also provides a basis to understand the environmental risk of randoml

SUBMITTER: Li B 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8855619 | biostudies-literature | 2022 Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature