Impact of Microplastics and Nanoplastics on Human Health

Abstract

Plastics have enormous impacts to every aspect of daily life including technology, medicine and treatments, and domestic appliances. Most of the used plastics are thrown away by consumers after a single use, which has become a huge environmental problem as they will end up in landfill, oceans and other waterways. These plastics are discarded in vast numbers each day, and the breaking down of the plastics from micro- to nano-sizes has led to worries about how toxic these plastics are to the environment and humans. While, there are several earlier studies reported the effects of micro- and nano-plastics have on the environment, there is scant research into their impact on the human body at subcellular or molecular levels. In particular, the potential of how nano-plastics move through the gut, lungs and skin epithelia in causing systemic exposure has not been examined thoroughly. This review explores thoroughly on how nanoplastics are created, how they behave/breakdown within the environment, levels of toxicity and pollution of these nanoplastics, and the possible health impacts on humans, as well as suggestions for additional research. This paper aims to inspire future studies into core elements of micro- and nano-plastics, the biological reactions caused by their specific and unusual qualities.

Microplastics pollution in salt pans from the Maheshkhali Channel, Bangladesh

“…During degradation, MP tends to emit monomers and different types of additives, these having the potential to cause harm to ecological systems and health 18 , 35 . Results for the polymeric risks indices are presented in Fig.…”

Micro/nano-plastics occurrence, identification, risk analysis and mitigation: challenges and perspectives

“…The terrestrial domain is more susceptible to MP/NPs and the annual inputs from land exceeds the total MP/NPs floating in the global ocean (Yee et al 2021 ; Wang et al 2021 ; Hu et al 2019 ). Soil bound MP/NPs originate from multiple sources, which includes sewage sludge/biosolids, domestic waste, irrigation, land fillings, fertilization, plastic film mulch, greenhouse materials, atmospheric deposition, tire abrasion and garden organic waste (Koutnik et al 2021 ; Guo et al 2020 ; Wang et al 2020b ).…”

“…Plastics can disseminate micro-and nanoplastics either via biodegradation or non-biodegradation processes (Yee et al 2021 ). Plastics are long-chain organic compounds, and their degradation is determined by the change in physical properties (shape, size, porosity, surface area, and crystallinity) and their ability to interact with other pollutants (Cai et al 2017 ; Campanale et al 2020 ).…”

Microplastics in the Environment: Intake through the Food Web, Human Exposure and Toxicological Effects

“…In the last few years, the impact of microplastics and nanoplastics on the human body has been analyzed in both in vitro and in vivo studies [ 228 , 229 , 230 , 231 ]. The toxicological hazard of microplastic and nanoplastic exposure to humans through oral ingestion was recently assessed [ 232 ].…”