Environmental Chemistry and Ecotoxicology (Jan 2024)
The growing threats and mitigation of environmental microplastics
Abstract
Microplastics (MPs) are emerging pollutants that constitutes a very serious environmental nuisance and menace to the globe in the last decade. The environmental damages from MPs include ecological imbalance of the marine environment, flora, and fauna and these are yet to be understood in the African environment. The sustainable development goals 14 and 15 (SDGs #14 and #15) seek to address the challenges in combating the sustainability of marine and terrestrial lives respectively. Understanding the pollution dynamics of MPs in the environment is crucial to the sustainability of lives globally and in particular Africa soon. Hence, it is imperative to arrest this environmental challenge as swiftly as possible before the collapse of the entire biomes. MPs have been detected in several matrices; soil, air, aquatic environments, plants, fishes, animals, and humans. Their different source routes: ingestion, inhalation, and dermal contact contribute an adverse effect (toxicity) to all spheres of life. To aquatic animals, terrestrial animals, and humans, it limits their movement, leads to the shedding of scales, inhibits growth, suppresses the immune system, and causes inflammation, coagulation, also blood cell toxicity among others, and on the long-run mortality was noted in this review. There is physical, chemical and biological transformation as microplastics age, leading to toxicity, mobility, and great environmental interaction. This has contributed to high MP intake by fish and other aquatic animals. For this reason, researchers should delve into simpler and cheaper ways of analyzing its presence in the environment and develop remediation strategies to curb its presence in the aquatic environment.
