Grupo de Investigación de Biodiversidad, Medio Ambiente y Sociedad, Universidad San Ignacio de Loyola, Lima, Peru.
Universidad San Ignacio de Loyola, Av. La Fontana 501, Lima 12, Lima, Peru.
Sci Total Environ. 2022 Nov 15;847:157636. doi: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2022.157636. Epub 2022 Jul 26.
Among the indirect environmental impacts generated by the global COVID-19 pandemic, contamination with personal protective equipment (PPE), like face masks, may be one of the most relevant ones. PPE has been found in multiple aquatic, marine, and terrestrial environments, including places of absolute relevancy to biodiversity conservation, such as protected areas (PAs). Here, a brief report of the presence of PPE in six PAs of Peru is presented. PPE pollution in PAs consisted mainly of single-use and reusable face masks, as well as plastics associated with PAs, such as KN95 respirator wrappings. The mean PPE density was estimated as 1.32 × 10 PPE/m. FTIR spectroscopy confirmed that face masks and wrappers mainly consisted of polypropylene and polyethylene, two of the most commonly available synthetic polymers. The material was poorly degraded according to their FTIR spectra, possibly suggesting that they were discarded recently. The recent ban on single-use plastic in Peruvian PAs is regarded as a great step forward toward the efforts made to preserve these invaluable places. However, these measures seemed insufficient to prevent PPE and other types of litter from contaminating areas of ecological importance. Considering the current scenario, several recommendations were proposed to be implemented in PAs in order to prevent PPE from becoming a new plastic issue to tackle. These recommendations are expected to also serve for future events where the use of single-use plastics becomes inevitable, like global pandemics.
在全球 COVID-19 大流行所产生的间接环境影响中，个人防护设备 (PPE) 的污染可能是最相关的影响之一。已经在多种水生、海洋和陆地环境中发现了 PPE，包括对生物多样性保护具有绝对重要性的地方，如保护区 (PA)。在此，简要报告了秘鲁六个 PA 中存在 PPE 的情况。PA 中的 PPE 污染主要由一次性和可重复使用的口罩以及与 PA 相关的塑料组成，例如 KN95 呼吸器包装。估计 PPE 的平均密度为 1.32×10 PPE/m。FTIR 光谱证实，口罩和包装主要由聚丙烯和聚乙烯组成，这两种是最常见的合成聚合物。根据它们的 FTIR 光谱，这些材料降解不良，可能表明它们是最近丢弃的。秘鲁 PA 最近禁止使用一次性塑料，这被认为是朝着保护这些宝贵地方所做努力迈出的一大步。然而，这些措施似乎不足以防止 PPE 和其他类型的垃圾污染具有生态重要性的地区。考虑到当前的情况，提出了一些建议，以便在 PA 中实施，以防止 PPE 成为新的塑料问题。这些建议预计也将适用于未来需要使用一次性塑料的情况，例如全球大流行。
