Abstract

CASTANETA, Grover; GUTIERREZ, Abel F; NACARATTE, Fallón  and  MANZANO, Carlos A. Microplastics: a contaminant that grows in all environmental áreas, its characteristics and possible risks to public health from exposure. Rev. Bol. Quim [online]. 2020, vol.37, n.3, pp.142-157. ISSN 0250-5460.

Abstract Microplastics (MPs) have become a major challenge for environmental science, analytical chemistry, and environmental toxicology in recent years. These have attracted worldwide attention in their category of emerging pollutants due to their interactions and persistence in the environment, in addition to their origin from poor management in the treatment of urban center waste, as well as poor industrial practices and their use. indiscriminate. MPs are currently scattered all over the planet, from oceans to rivers, sediments, soil, air, living organisms and even in food resources and remote áreas of the planet such as the Arctic and mountainous glaciers. Therefore, this review aims to inform about the formation, types, sources, interaction with pollutants and possible health consequences of PMs present in the environment. We seek to raise awareness that currently people are living alongside MPs without realizing it. In addition, this review also includes a brief tour of the latest studies that have been carried out in South America, conceptualizing the local and regional reality with respect to this global problem.

Keywords : Plástic pollution; Microplastics; Plástic waste; Public Health; Environment; Microplastics in South America.

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