Evidence map›Paper›PMID 36818682›Full record

ArticleJournal of hazardous materials advances2023

Density variability of COVID-19 face mask litter: A cautionary tale for pandemic PPE waste monitoring.

Robert L France, Brandon Heung

Abstract read
In one paragraph

Article in Journal of hazardous materials advances, 2023. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 1 paper.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
1citing papers in PubMed
–field-weighted citation impact
1 · What the graph read from 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.

2 · The registry

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.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

1 citing paper in PubMed.

  1. Review
4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

2 authors.

Robert L FranceDepartment of Plants, Food and Environmental Science, Dalhousie University, Truro, Nova Scotia, Canada, B2N 5E3.
Brandon HeungDepartment of Plants, Food and Environmental Science, Dalhousie University, Truro, Nova Scotia, Canada, B2N 5E3.

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

Despite the requirement for data to be normally distributed with variance being independent of the mean, some studies of plastic litter, including COVID-19 face masks, have not tested for these assumptions before embarking on analyses using parametric statistics. Investigation of new data and secondary analyses of published literature data indicate that face masks are not normally distributed and that variances are not independent of mean densities. In consequence, it is necessary to either use nonparametric analyses or to transform data prior to undertaking parametric approaches. For the new data set, spatial and temporal variance functions indicate that according to Taylor's Power Law, the fourth-root transformation will offer most promise for stabilizing variance about the mean.

Indexed as

COVID face masksData transformationNon-random density distributionParking lot litter

Identifiers

PMID36818682
PMCPMC9758072

What OpenQuestion holds

Textmetadata
Read underepoch 390

Registered trials

None linked

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.