Division of Drinking Water, State Water Resources Control Board, California Environmental Protection Agency, Sacramento, California, United States of America.
Ocean Protection Council, California Environmental Protection Agency, Sacramento, California, United States of America.
PLoS Biol. 2021 Mar 30;19(3):e3000932. doi: 10.1371/journal.pbio.3000932. eCollection 2021 Mar.
Public concern over the environmental and public health impacts of the emerging contaminant class "microplastics" has recently prompted government agencies to consider mitigation efforts. Microplastics do not easily fit within traditional risk-based regulatory frameworks because their persistence and extreme diversity (of size, shape, and chemical properties associated with sorbed chemicals) result in high levels of uncertainty in hazard and exposure estimates. Due to these serious complexities, addressing microplastics' impacts requires open collaboration between scientists, regulators, and policymakers. Here we describe ongoing international mitigation efforts, with California as a case study, and draw lessons from a similarly diverse and environmentally persistent class of emerging contaminants (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) that is already disrupting traditional regulatory paradigms, discuss strategies to address challenges associated with developing health-protective regulations and policies related to microplastics, and suggest ways to maximize impacts of research.
公众对新兴污染物“微塑料”对环境和公共健康的影响表示关注，这促使政府部门考虑采取缓解措施。由于微塑料的持久性和极高的多样性（与吸附化学物质相关的大小、形状和化学性质），其危害和暴露评估存在高度不确定性，因此它们不容易适应传统的基于风险的监管框架。由于这些严重的复杂性，解决微塑料的影响需要科学家、监管机构和政策制定者之间的公开合作。在这里，我们以加利福尼亚州为例，描述正在进行的国际缓解工作，并从已经扰乱传统监管模式的类似多样和环境持久性的新兴污染物（全氟和多氟烷基物质）类别中吸取经验教训，讨论与制定与微塑料相关的保护健康的法规和政策相关的挑战的应对策略，并提出最大限度发挥研究影响的方法。
