ReviewChemosphere2021
The COVID-19 pandemic face mask waste: A blooming threat to the marine environment.
Review in Chemosphere, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. An erratum has been issued. Cited by 82 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
82 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
- Masks and respirators for prevention of respiratory infections: a state of the science review.Clinical microbiology reviews · 2024Pooled it
- Does medical waste research during COVID-19 meet the challenge induced by the pandemic to waste management?Waste management & research : the journal of the International Solid Wastes and Public Cleansing Association, ISWA · 2024Pooled it
- Advances in electrospun nanofiber-based personal protective equipment for active filtration.Discover nano · 2026Review
- The COVID-19 Pandemic as a Lesson: WHO Actions Versus the Expectations of Medical Staff-Evidence from Poland.Journal of clinical medicine · 2026Article
- Micro- and Nanoplastics in Dentistry: Challenges in Obtaining High-Quality Evidence.Materials (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Review
- Article
- Pharmaceutical Humanities and Narrative Pharmacy: An Emerging New Concept in Pharmacy.Pharmaceuticals (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Review
- Reusable Personal Protective Equipment Viewed Through the Lens of Sustainability.International dental journal · 2024Review
- Advance Analysis of the Obtained Recycled Materials from Used Disposable Surgical Masks.Polymers · 2024Article
- Experimental Study on the Mechanical Properties of Disposable Mask Waste-Reinforced Gangue Concrete.Materials (Basel, Switzerland) · 2024Article
- aPDI meets PPE: photochemical decontamination in healthcare using methylene blue-where are we now, where will we go?Photochemical & photobiological sciences : Official journal of the European Photochemistry Association and the European Society for Photobiology · 2024Article
- Infrastructure in the Age of Pandemics: Utilizing Polypropylene-Based Mask Waste for Durable and Sustainable Road Pavements.Polymers · 2023Article
- A Digital Mask-Voiceprint System for Postpandemic Surveillance and Tracing Based on the STRONG Strategy.Journal of medical Internet research · 2023Article
- Personal protective equipment-derived pollution during Covid-19 era: A critical review of ecotoxicology impacts, intervention strategies, and future challenges.The Science of the total environment · 2023Review
- Global face mask pollution: threats to the environment and wildlife, and potential solutions.The Science of the total environment · 2023Review
- Recycling spent masks to fabricate flexible hard carbon anode toward advanced sodium energy storage.Journal of electroanalytical chemistry (Lausanne, Switzerland) · 2023Article
- A novel investigations on medical and non-medical mask performance with influence of marine waste microplastics (polypropylene).Marine pollution bulletin · 2023Article
- Porous carbon tubes from recycling waste COVID-19 masks for optimization of 8 mol% YMaterials today. Chemistry · 2023Article
- Enrichment of antibiotic resistant genes and pathogens in face masks from coastal environments.Journal of hazardous materials · 2023Article
- Different weathering conditions affect the release of microplastics by masks.Environmental science and pollution research international · 2023Article
22 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
- Erratum issued
Authors and funding
7 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Recently, the COVID-19 disease spread has emerged as a worldwide pandemic and cause severe threats to humanity. The World Health Organisation (WHO) releases guidelines to help the countries to reduce the spread of this virus to the public, like wearing masks, hand hygiene, social distancing, shutting down all types of public transports, etc. These conditions led to a worldwide economic fall drastically, and on the other hand, indirect environmental benefits like global air quality improvement and decreased water pollution are also pictured. Currently, use of face masks is part of a comprehensive package of the prevention and control measures that can limit the spread of COVID-19 since there is no clinically proven drugs or vaccine available for COVID-19. Mostly, face masks are made of petroleum-based non-renewable polymers that are non-biodegradable, hazardous to the environment and create health issues. This study demonstrates the extensive use of the face mask and how it affects human health and the marine ecosystem. It has become a great challenge for the government sectors to impose strict regulations for the proper disposal of the masks as medical waste by the public. Neglecting the seriousness of this issue may lead to the release of large tonnes of micro-plastics to the landfill as well as to the marine environment where mostly end-up and thereby affecting their fauna and flora population vastly. Besides, this study highlights the COVID-19 spread, its evolutionary importance, taxonomy, genomic structure, transmission to humans, prevention, and treatment.
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What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.