Microplastic Pollution: An Overview of Current Scenario, Challenges, and Research Gaps

Abstract

Globally presence of Microplastics (MPs) in the environment is identified as one of the major environmental threat. MPs are small plastic fragments (0.001-5 mm) and are ubiquitous in the environment especially in the marine and freshwater ecosystems. Majorly, they originate as a degradation products of larger plastic materials, or directly originate from personnel care products and synthetic fabrics. Smaller size of MPs results in their ingestion by a wide range of aquatic organisms ranging from zooplankton to fish, implying the potential for microplastics to accumulate in the marine food web. In this way, microplastics can potentially impact food safety and human health also. Recently presence of MPs in drinking water and table salt has sought the attention of worldwide researchers. In addition to that, hydrophobic nature of MPs also makes them as an active site for sorption of number of toxic persistent organic and inorganic contaminants and this too imparts toxicity to them. However, still our understanding with respect to ecological impact of MPs on the terrestrial environment is limited. There is also a need for comprehensive evaluation and assessment of MPs in different environmental systems in order to obtain a complete scenario of the extent of pollution. Toxicity evaluation of the same also needs to be assessed depthly. In the present review a brief overview of microplastic pollution, its toxicity assessment along with major challenges and mitigation options are discussed.