Cargando…

Assessing face masks in the environment by means of the DPSIR framework

The use of face masks outside the health care facility dates back a century ago. However, face masks use noticeably soared due to the COVID-19 (Coronavirus disease 2019) pandemic. As a result, an unprecedented influx of discarded face masks is ending up in the environment. This review paper delves i...

Descripción completa

Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Tesfaldet, Yacob T., Ndeh, Nji T.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Elsevier B.V. 2022
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8724021/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34995587
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2021.152859
_version_ 1784625835031920640
author Tesfaldet, Yacob T.
Ndeh, Nji T.
author_facet Tesfaldet, Yacob T.
Ndeh, Nji T.
author_sort Tesfaldet, Yacob T.
collection PubMed
description The use of face masks outside the health care facility dates back a century ago. However, face masks use noticeably soared due to the COVID-19 (Coronavirus disease 2019) pandemic. As a result, an unprecedented influx of discarded face masks is ending up in the environment. This review paper delves into face masks in the environment using the DPSIR (driving forces, pressures, states, impacts, and responses) framework to simplify and communicate the environmental indicators. Firstly, the historical, and briefly the economic trajectory of face masks are discussed. Secondly, the main driving forces of face masks use with an emphasis on public health are explored. Then, the pressures exerted by efforts to fulfill the human needs (driving forces) are investigated. In turn, the state of the environment due to the influx of masks along with the impacts are examined. Furthermore, the upstream, and downstream societal responses to mitigate the environmental damages of the driving forces, pressures, states, and impacts are reviewed. In summary, it has been shown from this review that the COVID-19 pandemic has been causing a surge in face mask usage, which translates to face masks pollution in both terrestrial and aquatic environments. This implies proper usage and disposal of face masks is paramount to the quality of human health and the environment, respectively. Moreover, further research on eco-friendly face masks is indispensable to mitigating the environmental damages occurring due to the mass use of surgical masks worldwide.
format Online
Article
Text
id pubmed-8724021
institution National Center for Biotechnology Information
language English
publishDate 2022
publisher Elsevier B.V.
record_format MEDLINE/PubMed
spelling pubmed-87240212022-01-04 Assessing face masks in the environment by means of the DPSIR framework Tesfaldet, Yacob T. Ndeh, Nji T. Sci Total Environ Review The use of face masks outside the health care facility dates back a century ago. However, face masks use noticeably soared due to the COVID-19 (Coronavirus disease 2019) pandemic. As a result, an unprecedented influx of discarded face masks is ending up in the environment. This review paper delves into face masks in the environment using the DPSIR (driving forces, pressures, states, impacts, and responses) framework to simplify and communicate the environmental indicators. Firstly, the historical, and briefly the economic trajectory of face masks are discussed. Secondly, the main driving forces of face masks use with an emphasis on public health are explored. Then, the pressures exerted by efforts to fulfill the human needs (driving forces) are investigated. In turn, the state of the environment due to the influx of masks along with the impacts are examined. Furthermore, the upstream, and downstream societal responses to mitigate the environmental damages of the driving forces, pressures, states, and impacts are reviewed. In summary, it has been shown from this review that the COVID-19 pandemic has been causing a surge in face mask usage, which translates to face masks pollution in both terrestrial and aquatic environments. This implies proper usage and disposal of face masks is paramount to the quality of human health and the environment, respectively. Moreover, further research on eco-friendly face masks is indispensable to mitigating the environmental damages occurring due to the mass use of surgical masks worldwide. Elsevier B.V. 2022-03-25 2022-01-04 /pmc/articles/PMC8724021/ /pubmed/34995587 http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2021.152859 Text en © 2022 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. Since January 2020 Elsevier has created a COVID-19 resource centre with free information in English and Mandarin on the novel coronavirus COVID-19. The COVID-19 resource centre is hosted on Elsevier Connect, the company's public news and information website. Elsevier hereby grants permission to make all its COVID-19-related research that is available on the COVID-19 resource centre - including this research content - immediately available in PubMed Central and other publicly funded repositories, such as the WHO COVID database with rights for unrestricted research re-use and analyses in any form or by any means with acknowledgement of the original source. These permissions are granted for free by Elsevier for as long as the COVID-19 resource centre remains active.
spellingShingle Review
Tesfaldet, Yacob T.
Ndeh, Nji T.
Assessing face masks in the environment by means of the DPSIR framework
title Assessing face masks in the environment by means of the DPSIR framework
title_full Assessing face masks in the environment by means of the DPSIR framework
title_fullStr Assessing face masks in the environment by means of the DPSIR framework
title_full_unstemmed Assessing face masks in the environment by means of the DPSIR framework
title_short Assessing face masks in the environment by means of the DPSIR framework
title_sort assessing face masks in the environment by means of the dpsir framework
topic Review
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8724021/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34995587
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2021.152859
work_keys_str_mv AT tesfaldetyacobt assessingfacemasksintheenvironmentbymeansofthedpsirframework
AT ndehnjit assessingfacemasksintheenvironmentbymeansofthedpsirframework