Division of Community Health and Humanities, Faculty of Medicine, Memorial University St. John's, NL A1B 3V6, Canada.
Department of Civil Engineering, University of Calgary, 2500 University Drive NW, Calgary, AB T2N 1N4, Canada.
Sci Total Environ. 2021 Feb 25;757:143872. doi: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2020.143872. Epub 2020 Dec 3.
Microplastics are an emerging global environmental contaminant that are affecting multiple spheres. Despite their ubiquity in all spheres of life and ecology, little is known about the health effects of microplastics exposure to humans. This scoping review explores the existing evidence on the potential human health effects of microplastics and subsequent knowledge gaps. An electronic search of published articles in PubMed, Scopus, EMBASE, Cochrane databases, and Google Scholar was conducted using a combination of subject headings and keywords relating to microplastics and human health effects. The initial search resulted in 17,043 published articles and grey literature documents. After a full review of published articles and their references, 129 publications were identified for further detailed review. These articles indicate that human exposure to microplastics can occur through ingestion, inhalation, and dermal contact due to their presence in food, water, air, and consumer products. Microplastics exposure can cause toxicity through oxidative stress, inflammatory lesions, and increased uptake or translocation. Several studies have demonstrated the potentiality of metabolic disturbances, neurotoxicity, and increased cancer risk in humans. Moreover, microplastics have been found to release their constituent compounds as well as those that are adsorbed onto their surface. Further research is needed to quantify the effects of microplastics on human health and their pathogenesis.
微塑料是一种新兴的全球性环境污染物，正在影响多个领域。尽管微塑料在生活和生态的各个领域无处不在，但人们对其暴露对人类健康的影响知之甚少。本范围综述探讨了现有关于微塑料对人类潜在健康影响及其后续知识空白的证据。使用与微塑料和人类健康影响相关的主题词和关键词组合，在 PubMed、Scopus、EMBASE、Cochrane 数据库和 Google Scholar 中进行了已发表文章的电子检索。最初的搜索产生了 17043 篇已发表文章和灰色文献文件。在对已发表文章及其参考文献进行全面审查后，确定了 129 篇出版物进行进一步详细审查。这些文章表明，由于微塑料存在于食品、水、空气和消费产品中，人类可以通过摄入、吸入和皮肤接触接触到微塑料。微塑料暴露会通过氧化应激、炎症损伤和增加摄取或转移引起毒性。几项研究表明，微塑料可能会导致代谢紊乱、神经毒性和癌症风险增加。此外，已经发现微塑料会释放其组成化合物以及吸附在其表面上的化合物。需要进一步研究来量化微塑料对人类健康的影响及其发病机制。
