Degradation of plastics associated with the COVID-19 pandemic

Occurrence of COVID-19 personal protective equipment (PPE) litters along the eastern coast of Palawan Island, Philippines

“…Evidences have also indicated the occurrence of different types of PPE in coastal cities in America ( Ardusso et al, 2021 ; Thiel et al, 2021 ), lakes and beaches in Africa ( Ben Haddad et al, 2021 ; Okuku et al, 2020 ; Aragaw et al, 2022 ; Hassan et al, 2022 ; Mghili et al, 2022 ), and cities in Europe ( Prata et al, 2020 ). Recent reports also revealed that abandoned PPE litters are potential sources of microplastic fibers through physical and chemical degradation ( De-la-Torre et al, 2022b ; Pizarro-Ortega et al, 2022 ) and can be an emerging source of secondary microfibers and MP particles in the marine environments ( Akhbarizadeh et al, 2021 ).…”

Prevalence of Covid-19 personal protective equipment in aquatic systems and impact on associated fauna

“…Morgana et al ( 2021 ) exposed virgin surgical facemasks to a kitchen chopper in aqueous solution for 2 min and found them to release 28,000 MP per mask. The alteration of mechanical properties of plastics results in their fragmentation in natural environments and is determined by their chemical composition (Pizarro-Ortega et al, 2022 ).…”

“…polyethylene & polypropylene) to break up and thus form new functional groups. Like regular plastics, facemasks exposed to UV radiation will result in the formation of hydroxyl and carbonyl groups (Pizarro-Orteg et al 2022 ) and the chain scission of polyolefin will result in the formation of oxygen containing and ketone functional groups (Resmeriță et al 2018). Moreover, Gewert et al ( 2018 ) revealed that dicarboxylic acids (i.e.…”

“…A study by Kutralam-Muniasamy et al ( 2022 ) has endeavoured to review literature on the occurrence of PPE litter in different environmental media and the discharge of micro- and nano-plastics in aquatic environments. However, most of the studies that are available in literature are laboratory based studies which are different from the in situ release of MPs (Pizarro-Orteg et al 2022 ). There is still a paucity of information on the spatial connection and deposition of PPE litter in oceans.…”

Indirect effects of COVID-19 on the environment: How plastic contamination from disposable surgical masks affect early development of plants

“…After use, they mostly end up in the environment (landfills, freshwaters or oceans), where the MP fibers continue to disintegrate into smaller pieces. Although several studies confirmed that PPEs were already present to varying degrees in the coastal zones from South America ( Thiel et al 2021 ; De la Torre et al 2021; Ardusso et al 2021 ) to Africa ( Okuku et al 2021 ), river outlets ( Cordova et al 2021 ), and urban environments ( Ryan et al, 2020 , Ammendolia et al, 2021 , Abedin et al, 2022 ); based on the fate of degrading surgical masks, it can be anticipated that excessive PPE use due to COVID-19 can significantly increase the amount of related MPs in the environment within a short period of time ( Fadare and Okoffo, 2020 , Pizarro-Ortega et al, 2022 ).…”