Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Seoul National University, 1 Gwanak-ro, Gwanak-gu, Seoul 08826, Korea.
Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2021 Jul 1;18(13):7068. doi: 10.3390/ijerph18137068.
Single-use disposable facemasks have been used as a preventive measure against the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. However, many researchers have found evidence that these facemasks are being dumped into lakes, rivers, and open garbage dumps. Facemasks have the potential of releasing microplastic fibers into the environment; a phenomenon that has been poorly investigated. Moreover, microplastic fibers composed of plastics have the potential of affecting the flora and fauna of many ecosystems. In this preliminary study, we investigate how many microplastic fibers had been released to the water by KF-AD, KF94, surgical, and FFP1 standard facemasks, which are the most widely available facemask standards in South Korea. The waterbody in our research was mechanically agitated for 24, 48, and 72 h. Findings showed that most of the layers of facemasks are composed of polypropylene. The surgical and KF94 standard facemasks released the highest number of microplastic fibers. Furthermore, under our research conditions, a single facemask can release at least 47 microplastic fibers per day (e.g., KF-AD standard mask), which can lead to the release of at least 1381 million microplastic fibers per day in total in South Korea if 70% of the urban population uses a single mask every day. Moreover, the released microplastic fibers significantly increased when the agitation time extended from 24 to 48 h. This finding suggests that the number of released microplastic fibers is likely to increase drastically.
一次性使用的口罩已被用作预防持续的 COVID-19 大流行的措施。然而，许多研究人员发现，这些口罩被丢弃在湖泊、河流和露天垃圾场中。口罩有可能将微塑料纤维释放到环境中，这种现象尚未得到充分研究。此外，由塑料组成的微塑料纤维有可能影响许多生态系统的动植物。在这项初步研究中，我们调查了在韩国最广泛使用的口罩标准KF-AD、KF94、外科和 FFP1 标准口罩中有多少微塑料纤维释放到水中。我们研究的水体被机械搅拌 24、48 和 72 小时。结果表明，大多数口罩层由聚丙烯组成。外科和 KF94 标准口罩释放的微塑料纤维数量最多。此外，在我们的研究条件下，一个口罩每天至少可以释放 47 根微塑料纤维（例如，KF-AD 标准口罩），如果韩国 70%的城市人口每天使用一个口罩，那么每天至少会释放 1.381 亿根微塑料纤维。此外，当搅拌时间从 24 小时延长到 48 小时时，释放的微塑料纤维显著增加。这一发现表明，释放的微塑料纤维数量可能会急剧增加。
