ReviewJournal of hazardous materials2022
A critical synthesis of current peer-reviewed literature on the environmental and human health impacts of COVID-19 PPE litter: New findings and next steps.
Review in Journal of hazardous materials, 2022. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 42 papers, 1 of them a synthesis 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
42 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 116 citations in OpenAlex.
- Toxicological effects of micro/nano-plastics on mouse/rat models: a systematic review and meta-analysis.Frontiers in public health · 2023Pooled it
- Plastic Degradation Potential and Metagenomic Analysis of an Enriched Gut Microbial Consortium fromMicroorganisms · 2026Article
- Neurological Outcomes of Joint Exposure to Polystyrene Micro/Nanospheres and Silver Nanoparticles in Zebrafish.Environmental health perspectives · 2025Article
- Reusable Personal Protective Equipment Viewed Through the Lens of Sustainability.International dental journal · 2024Review
- The Fate of Microplastics, Derived from Disposable Masks, in Natural Aquatic Environments.Toxics · 2024Article
- Optimization of the Centrifugal Spinning Parameters to Prepare Poly(butylene succinate) Nanofibers Mats for Aerosol Filter Applications.Nanomaterials (Basel, Switzerland) · 2023Article
- Personal protective equipment waste management behavior of undergraduates in Xi'an City based on extended theory of value-identity-personal norm model.Scientific reports · 2023Article
- COVID-19 personal protective equipment (PPE) contamination in coastal areas of Granada, Spain.Marine pollution bulletin · 2023Article
- Different weathering conditions affect the release of microplastics by masks.Environmental science and pollution research international · 2023Article
- Environmental footprints of disposable and reusable personal protective equipment ‒ a product life cycle approach for body coveralls.Journal of cleaner production · 2023Article
- Facemask: Protection or threat?Marine pollution bulletin · 2023Article
- An ecotoxicological perspective of microplastics released by face masks.Journal of hazardous materials · 2023Article
- Density variability of COVID-19 face mask litter: A cautionary tale for pandemic PPE waste monitoring.Journal of hazardous materials advances · 2023Article
- Temporal considerations for an effective sampling of personal protective equipment litter derived from the COVID-19 pandemic.The Science of the total environment · 2023Article
- Plastic wastes in the time of COVID-19: Their environmental hazards and implications for sustainable energy resilience and circular bio-economies.The Science of the total environment · 2023Review
- Environment and COVID-19 incidence: A critical review.Journal of environmental sciences (China) · 2023Review
- Probing nanoplastics derived from polypropylene face masks with hyperspectral dark-field microscopy.The Science of the total environment · 2023Article
- Personal protective equipment (PPE) pollution driven by COVID-19 pandemic in Marina Beach, the longest urban beach in Asia: Abundance, distribution, and analytical characterization.Marine pollution bulletin · 2023Article
- Abundance and characterization of personal protective equipment (PPE) polluting Kish Island, Persian Gulf.The Science of the total environment · 2023Article
- Analysis of Marine Microplastic Pollution of Disposable Masks under COVID-19 Epidemic-A DPSIR Framework.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2022Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
3 authors at 2 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Since the emergence of Coronavirus disease (COVID-19), the threat of plastic waste pollution has grown exponentially, with a strong attention on the environmental and human health consequences of millions of personal protective equipment (PPE) (e.g., face masks, shields, gloves, and wipes) being used and discarded. In response, a massive research effort has been launched to understand, characterize, and estimate the exposure risks of PPE associated contaminants. While the number of studies examining the impacts of PPE is increasing, this review aimed to provide a quick update on the research conducted to date of this topic, as well as to identify priorities for future research. Specifically, we analyzed recent global peer-reviewed articles on PPE to synthesize methods, control measures, and documented evidence to (1) investigate the discarded PPE in a variety of environments; (2) determine the microplastics discharge in the aquatic environment; (3) examine the intentionally or unintentionally added chemicals in the production of PPE; and (4) assess potential human health hazards and exposure pathways. Despite progress, more research is needed in the future to fully understand the chemical emissions from PPE degradation mechanisms (mechanical, chemical, and biological), as well as the magnitude and density of PPE pollution in the environment.
Indexed as
Identifiers
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.