College of Materials and Environmental Engineering, Hangzhou Dianzi University, Hangzhou 310018, China; Stockbridge School of Agriculture, University of Massachusetts, Amherst, MA 01003, USA.
Laboratory for Marine Ecology and Environmental Science, Qingdao National Laboratory for Marine Science and Technology, Qingdao 266071, China; Institute of Coastal Environmental Pollution Control, and Ministry of Education Key Laboratory of Marine Environment and Ecology, Ocean University of China, Qingdao 266100, China.
J Hazard Mater. 2021 Apr 5;407:124357. doi: 10.1016/j.jhazmat.2020.124357. Epub 2020 Oct 22.
Microplastics are small plastic pieces with sizes less than 5 mm. Due to their widespread distribution in different environmental compartments, food, and drinking water, microplastics have attracted increasing attention across the world. Previous reports have focused on the source, distribution, fate, and toxicity of microplastics. However, many of these studies and reviews are not quite comprehensive, and most of them have only focused on marine environments. Therefore, we comprehensively reviewed the available literature on the source, occurrence, and fate of microplastics in different environments, including air, freshwater, soil, and ocean, across the world. Our review suggests that the sources of microplastics are extensive and diverse and that their occurrence, transport, and fate in the environment are affected by a variety of natural factors as well as their own physicochemical properties. Studies on the toxicological effects of microplastics are also reviewed. We found that large research gaps exist in the quantitative analysis of different exposure routes of microplastics, and microplastic toxicity to organisms. Moreover, key suggestions for future research are presented, and we call for more efforts focusing on the occurrence and fate of microplastics in terrestrial environments, especially in the atmosphere and soil, and further investigations on the toxicity mechanisms of microplastics.
微塑料是指粒径小于 5 毫米的小块塑料。由于其广泛分布于不同环境介质（如食品和饮用水）中，微塑料已引起全世界的广泛关注。以往的研究主要集中在微塑料的来源、分布、归宿和毒性上。然而，这些研究和综述大多不够全面，且大多只关注海洋环境。因此，我们全面回顾了全球不同环境（包括空气、淡水、土壤和海洋）中微塑料的来源、存在和归宿的相关文献。我们的综述表明，微塑料的来源广泛且多样，其在环境中的迁移和归宿受到多种自然因素以及其自身物理化学性质的影响。我们还对微塑料的毒理学效应进行了综述。我们发现，对于不同暴露途径的微塑料的定量分析以及微塑料对生物的毒性作用等方面，还存在很大的研究空白。此外，我们还提出了未来研究的重点建议，呼吁更多地关注陆地环境（特别是大气和土壤）中微塑料的存在和归宿，以及进一步研究微塑料的毒性作用机制。
