Abundance and characterization of personal protective equipment (PPE) polluting Kish Island, Persian Gulf.

ABSTRACT: Plastic pollution is one of the major environmental threats the world is facing nowadays, which was exacerbated during the COVID-19 pandemic. In particular, multiple reports of single-use plastics driven by the pandemic, namely personal protective equipment (PPE) (e.g., face masks and gloves), contaminating coastal areas have been published. However, most studies focused solely on counting and visually characterizing this type of litter. In the present study, we complement conventional reports by characterizing this type of litter through chemical-analytical techniques. Standardized sampling procedures were carried out in Kish Island, The Persian Gulf, resulting in an average density of 2.34 × 10^-4 PPE/m². Fourier transformed infrared spectroscopy confirmed the polyme

SUBMITTER: Mohamadi S 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9464308 | biostudies-literature | 2022 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature