Tursi Antonio, Baratta Mariafrancesca, Easton Thomas, Chatzisymeon Efthalia, Chidichimo Francesco, De Biase Michele, De Filpo Giovanni
Department of Chemistry and Chemical Technologies, University of Calabria Via P. Bucci, Cubo 15D, 87036 Arcavacata di Rende (CS) Italy
School of Engineering, Institute for Infrastructure and Environment, University of Edinburgh The King's Buildings Edinburgh EH9 3JL UK.
RSC Adv. 2022 Oct 4;12(44):28318-28340. doi: 10.1039/d2ra04713f.
Although the discovery of plastic in the last century has brought enormous benefits to daily activities, it must be said that its use produces countless environmental problems that are difficult to solve. The indiscriminate use and the increase in industrial production of cleaning, cosmetic, packaging, fertilizer, automotive, construction and pharmaceutical products have introduced tons of plastics and microplastics into the environment. The latter are of greatest concern due to their size and their omnipresence in the various environmental sectors. Today, they represent a contaminant of increasing ecotoxicological interest especially in aquatic environments due to their high stability and diffusion. In this regard, this critical review aims to describe the different sources of microplastics, emphasizing their effects in aquatic ecosystems and the danger to the health of living beings, while examining, at the same time, those few modelling studies conducted to estimate the future impact of plastic towards the marine ecosystem. Furthermore, this review summarizes the latest scientific advances related to removal techniques, evaluating their advantages and disadvantages. The final purpose is to highlight the great environmental problem that we are going to face in the coming decades, and the need to develop appropriate strategies to invert the current scenario as well as better performing removal techniques to minimize the environmental impacts of microplastics.
尽管上世纪塑料的发现给日常活动带来了巨大益处，但必须指出，其使用产生了无数难以解决的环境问题。清洁、化妆品、包装、肥料、汽车、建筑和药品等产品的无节制使用以及工业生产的增加，已将大量塑料和微塑料引入环境。微塑料因其尺寸以及在各个环境领域的无处不在而备受关注。如今，由于其高稳定性和扩散性，它们成为一种生态毒理学关注度日益增加的污染物，尤其在水生环境中。在这方面，这篇批判性综述旨在描述微塑料的不同来源，强调它们在水生生态系统中的影响以及对生物健康的危害，同时审视那些为估计塑料对海洋生态系统未来影响而进行的为数不多的建模研究。此外，本综述总结了与去除技术相关的最新科学进展，评估了它们的优缺点。最终目的是突出我们在未来几十年将面临的重大环境问题，以及制定适当策略来扭转当前局面的必要性，还有开发性能更好的去除技术以尽量减少微塑料对环境的影响。
