126 Results Found

Microplastics are an increasing concern due to their widespread occurrence in aquatic environments worldwide. The lack of a harmonised protocol for their reliable quantification remains a major challenge in current scientific efforts. This study pres...

While biodegradable plastics alleviate plastic pollution, their degradation-derived biodegradable microplastics (BMPs) pose new ecological risks, necessitating efficient quantification methods. This study explores a label-free approach by leveraging...

Microplastic pollution is accumulating at alarming rates in the natural environment. New and innovative technologies are needed to help understand the gravity of the global microplastic pollution. In this study, a portable artificial intelligence sys...

Microplastic (MP) pollution poses an emerging environmental concern, yet current methods for isolation and quantification are often time-consuming, costly, and poorly adapted to real-world variability. In this study, a workflow for the preparation, f...

Microplastics have recently been discovered as remarkable contaminants of all environmental matrices. Their quantification and characterisation require lengthy and laborious analytical procedures that make this aspect of microplastics research a crit...

Rivers transport terrestrial microplastics (MP) to the marine system, demanding cost-effective and frequent monitoring, which is attainable through remote sensing. This study aims to develop and test microplastic concentration (MPC) models directly b...

Microplastics have become a ubiquitous contaminant in the environment. The present study focuses on the identification, characterization, and quantification techniques for tracking microplastics. Due to their unique compositional structure, unambiguo...

Microplastics (MPs) pose a significant risk to humans and animals due to their ability to absorb, adsorb, and desorb organic pollutants. MPs catchment from either sediments or water bodies is crucial for risk assessment, but fast and effective partic...

This study investigates the impact different mesh-sized filtration methods have on the amount of detected microplastics in the surface water of the Danube River delta. Further, the distribution of microplastics in different size categories (20 µ...

Development of novel methods for the separation, characterization, and analysis of microplastics is an urgent task. Countercurrent chromatography (CCC) has been proven to be an efficient method for the separation and preconcentration of microplastics...

Introduction: The presence of microplastics in sea salt has become an issue of a public concern due to the potential negative effects that microplastics could have on human health [...]

Microplastics spread through the environment in various ways. Inland waters are an ideal medium for their dispersal, as they collect pollutants from various sources and transport them over long distances. From there, microplastics can enter the marin...

Microplastic quantification in marine vegetated ecosystems remains analytically demanding, yet little is known about the environmental footprint of the laboratory procedures required to isolate and measure these particles. This study applies Life Cyc...

Microplastics (MPs) are found almost everywhere in the environment and the food chain. The long-term effects of MPs on living organisms are still unclear, so preventing anthropogenic MP generation has become crucial. Fibre-based packaging recycling i...

Plastic pollution is a rapidly growing environmental and human health crisis, with no sign of improvement. From 2012 to 2020, the number of studies on plastic pollution increased, and macro to nano-sized plastics have been documented in the most remo...

The evolving regulatory landscape for microplastics—including the European Union’s Drinking Water Directive—underscores the importance of addressing the analytics of emerging contaminants in water, ensuring public health protection,...

Microplastic pollution has become a global concern, with potential negative impacts on various ecosystems and wildlife species. Among these species, ducks (Anas platyrhynchos) are particularly vulnerable due to their feeding habits and proximity to a...

The terrestrial environment is an important contributor of microplastics (MPs) to the oceans. Urban streams, strictly interwoven in the city network and to the MPs’ terrestrial source, have a relevant impact on the MP budget of large rivers and, in t...

Road dust is one of the environment’s most important microplastic and plastic additive sources. Traffic vehicles and the wear of tires can release these emerging contaminants, which can be resuspended in the air and washed off by stormwater run...

Pyrolysis-GC/MS is increasingly used to quantify microplastics (MP) in environmental samples. In general, prior to analysis, purification steps are carried out to reduce the environmental matrix in sediment samples. The conventionally used protocol o...

Micro- and nanoplastic (pMP and pNP, respectively) release is an emerging issue since these particles constitute a ubiquitous and growing pollutant, which not only threatens the environment but may have potential consequences for human health. In par...

An intra-laboratory calibration to quantify microplastic in fine-grained marine sediments was performed with two objectives: (a) to determine the recovery rate of self-produced microplastics characterized by a size ranging from 220 µm to 5 mm a...

Pyrolysis coupled with gas chromatography–mass spectrometry (Py-GC/MS) is a novel technology capable of detecting micro- and nanoplastics without a size limit. However, the application of Py-GC/MS to airborne microplastic analysis remains incon...

Microplastic pollution, particularly particles smaller than 5 mm, poses significant environmental and health risks due to their potential for inhalation and long-range transport. This study provides the first long-term assessment of airborne micropla...

Water scarcity has driven the use of wastewater treatment plant (WWTP) effluents as reclaimed water, highlighting the need to overcome challenges such as the presence of emerging contaminants, particularly microplastics (MPs), which WWTPs are unable...

Plastic pollution from polyethylene-based materials is a critical environmental concern due to their high persistence. Here, we report the first proof-of-concept application of a multitechnique analytical framework for quantifying linear low-density...

Detection and quantification of tread wear particles in the environment have been a challenge owing to lack of a robust method. This study investigated the applicability of a combination of Simultaneous Thermal Analysis (STA), Fourier Transform Infra...

Anthropogenic microplastics (MPs) and nanoplastics (NPs) are ubiquitous pollutants found in aquatic, food, soil and air environments. Recently, drinking water for human consumption has been considered a significant pathway for ingestion of such plast...

One of the main routes of fish exposure to micro- and nanoplastics (MNPLs) is their ingestion. MNPLs can act as reservoirs of organic contaminants that are adsorbed onto their surfaces, or that can leach from their complex formulations, with potentia...

Plastics are present in the majority of daily-use products worldwide. Due to society’s production and consumption patterns, plastics are accumulating in the environment, causing global pollution issues and intergenerational impacts. Our work ai...

Microplastic pollution is no longer neglected worldwide, as recent studies have unveiled its potential harm to ecosystems and, even worse, to human health. Numerous studies have documented the ubiquity of microplastics, reflecting the necessity of fo...

The massive use of plastics has raised growing environmental concerns, including microplastic (MP) pollution. While most studies have focused on MPs in aquatic environments, research on airborne microplastics has gained increasing attention in recent...

Water pollution, resulting from the degradation of plastics into microplastics, exposes humans and other living organisms to contaminated drinking water. Microplastics are capable of adsorbing toxic heavy metals which are carcinogenic and may affect...

Microplastics are found in various environments with the increasing use of plastics worldwide. Several methods have been developed for the sampling, extraction, purification, identification, and quantification of microplastics in complex environmenta...

Microplastics reach the aquatic environment through wastewater. Larger debris is removed in sewage treatment plants, but filters are not explicitly designed to retain sewage sludge’s microplastic or terrestrial soils. Therefore, the effective quantif...

Small microplastics (<1 mm) comprise a great fraction of microplastics (<5 mm) found in the environment and are often overlooked due to the constrains of transporting and filtering large volumes of water in grab samplings. The objective of this...

Despite the extensive and rapidly growing literature on microplastics in oceans and coastal seas, little information exists on microplastic distribution through the salinity gradient. This study is the first one to evaluate microplastic distribution...

Microplastics (particles ≤ 5 mm) are ubiquitous and persistent, posing threats to ecosystems and human health. Thus, the development of technologies for evaluating their dynamics is crucial. Settling velocity is a critical parameter for predicting...

The removal of microplastic from wastewater collected from a plastic recycling facility was investigated, using a laboratory scale sand-filter. Wastewater samples were collected before and after the onsite sand-filter, for characterization for differ...

Around one million metric ton of plastics is produced worldwide daily. Plastic contamination is aggravated when the particles reach sizes between 5 mm and 1 μm, giving rise to microplastics, which are omnipresent in the environment, especially in...

The recycling of bio-waste plays an important role in a circular economy as it transforms bio-waste into a valuable resource (organic fertilizer). However, even separately collected bio-waste can contain some plastic waste, which is usually separated...

We introduce a novel microscopic image dataset augmented with segmentation and detection labels specifically designed for microplastic analysis in sewage environments. Recognizing the increasing concern over microplastics—particles of synthetic...

The study proposes a novel speckle interferometric method for detecting and quantifying microplastic leaching from paper cups, addressing concerns raised by the World Health Organization regarding human health risks. Hot water at varying temperatures...

Microplastics have emerged as a global environmental concern due to their widespread presence and potential effects on ecosystems. Wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) play a critical role in mitigating the release of microplastics into the environmen...

Microplastics (MPs) (<5 mm) are recognized as an emerging global problem in all oceans and coastlines around the world. This paper provided the quantification and characteristics of microplastics found on fourteen beaches along the northwestern Mo...

Microplastics are ubiquitous in marine environments and have been documented across all ocean compartments, especially surface waters, across the world. Even though several studies identify the presence of microplastics in the world’s five ocea...

Ubiquitous microplastics in urban waters have raised substantial public concern due to their high chemical persistence, accumulative effects, and potential adverse effects on human health. Reliable and standardized methods are urgently needed for the...

In their early life stages, fish are highly susceptible to a wide range of biological and anthropogenic factors (e.g., habitat degradation or pollution) that can influence their growth and survival. Due to their size, microplastics (plastic particles...

Microplastics have recently been stated as being remarkable contaminants of all environmental matrices. The lack of consistent and standardised methods and protocols used to evaluate and quantify microplastics present in riverine systems made a compa...

Plastic has transitioned rapidly from a revolutionary material to a global environmental concern, primarily due to mismanagement. Synthetic polymers have quickly gained widespread use due to their versatility, durability, and affordability. However,...