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Insight into the microplastics release from disposable face mask: Simulated environment and removal strategy

The fight against the COVID-19 epidemic significantly raises the global demand for personal protective equipment, especially disposable face masks (DFMs). The discarded DFMs may become a potential source of microplastics (MPs), which has attracted much attention. In this work, we identified the deta...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Jiang, Hongru, Su, Jiming, Zhang, Yingshuang, Bian, Kai, Wang, Zhiyi, Wang, Hui, Wang, Chongqing
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Elsevier Ltd. 2022
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9535493/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36209868
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.chemosphere.2022.136748
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author Jiang, Hongru
Su, Jiming
Zhang, Yingshuang
Bian, Kai
Wang, Zhiyi
Wang, Hui
Wang, Chongqing
author_facet Jiang, Hongru
Su, Jiming
Zhang, Yingshuang
Bian, Kai
Wang, Zhiyi
Wang, Hui
Wang, Chongqing
author_sort Jiang, Hongru
collection PubMed
description The fight against the COVID-19 epidemic significantly raises the global demand for personal protective equipment, especially disposable face masks (DFMs). The discarded DFMs may become a potential source of microplastics (MPs), which has attracted much attention. In this work, we identified the detailed source of MPs released from DFMs with laser direct infrared spectroscopy. Polypropylene (PP) and polyurethane (PU) accounted for 24.5% and 57.1% of released MPs, respectively. The melt-blown fabric was a dominant MPs source, however, previous studies underestimated the contribution of mask rope. The captured polyethylene terephthalate (PET), polyamide (PA), polyethylene (PE), and polystyrene (PS) in airborne only shared 18.4% of released MPs. To deepen the understanding of MPs release from medical mask into the aquatic environment, we investigated the effects of environmental factors on MPs release. Based on regression analysis, the effects of temperature, incubation time, and wearing time significantly affect the release of MPs. Besides, acidity, alkalinity, sodium chloride, and humic acid also contributed to the MPs release through corroding, swelling, or repulsion of fibers. Based on the exposure of medical mask to simulated environments, the number of released MPs followed the order: seawater > simulated gut-fluid > freshwater > pure water. Considering the risk of MPs released from DFMs to the environment, we innovatively established a novel flotation removal system combined with cocoamidopropyl betaine, achieving 86% removal efficiency of MPs in water. This work shed the light on the MPs release from DFMs and proposed a removal strategy for the control of MPs pollution.
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spelling pubmed-95354932022-10-06 Insight into the microplastics release from disposable face mask: Simulated environment and removal strategy Jiang, Hongru Su, Jiming Zhang, Yingshuang Bian, Kai Wang, Zhiyi Wang, Hui Wang, Chongqing Chemosphere Article The fight against the COVID-19 epidemic significantly raises the global demand for personal protective equipment, especially disposable face masks (DFMs). The discarded DFMs may become a potential source of microplastics (MPs), which has attracted much attention. In this work, we identified the detailed source of MPs released from DFMs with laser direct infrared spectroscopy. Polypropylene (PP) and polyurethane (PU) accounted for 24.5% and 57.1% of released MPs, respectively. The melt-blown fabric was a dominant MPs source, however, previous studies underestimated the contribution of mask rope. The captured polyethylene terephthalate (PET), polyamide (PA), polyethylene (PE), and polystyrene (PS) in airborne only shared 18.4% of released MPs. To deepen the understanding of MPs release from medical mask into the aquatic environment, we investigated the effects of environmental factors on MPs release. Based on regression analysis, the effects of temperature, incubation time, and wearing time significantly affect the release of MPs. Besides, acidity, alkalinity, sodium chloride, and humic acid also contributed to the MPs release through corroding, swelling, or repulsion of fibers. Based on the exposure of medical mask to simulated environments, the number of released MPs followed the order: seawater > simulated gut-fluid > freshwater > pure water. Considering the risk of MPs released from DFMs to the environment, we innovatively established a novel flotation removal system combined with cocoamidopropyl betaine, achieving 86% removal efficiency of MPs in water. This work shed the light on the MPs release from DFMs and proposed a removal strategy for the control of MPs pollution. Elsevier Ltd. 2022-12 2022-10-06 /pmc/articles/PMC9535493/ /pubmed/36209868 http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.chemosphere.2022.136748 Text en © 2022 Elsevier Ltd. 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 Article
Jiang, Hongru
Su, Jiming
Zhang, Yingshuang
Bian, Kai
Wang, Zhiyi
Wang, Hui
Wang, Chongqing
Insight into the microplastics release from disposable face mask: Simulated environment and removal strategy
title Insight into the microplastics release from disposable face mask: Simulated environment and removal strategy
title_full Insight into the microplastics release from disposable face mask: Simulated environment and removal strategy
title_fullStr Insight into the microplastics release from disposable face mask: Simulated environment and removal strategy
title_full_unstemmed Insight into the microplastics release from disposable face mask: Simulated environment and removal strategy
title_short Insight into the microplastics release from disposable face mask: Simulated environment and removal strategy
title_sort insight into the microplastics release from disposable face mask: simulated environment and removal strategy
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9535493/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36209868
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.chemosphere.2022.136748
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