20.500.12556/DiRROS-15839 Environmental hazard of polypropylene microplastics from disposable medical masks acute toxicity towards Daphnia magna and current knowledge on other polypropylene microplastics The COVID-19 pandemic has increased the use of disposable plastics, including medical masks, which have become a necessity in our daily lives. As these are often improperly disposed of, they represent an important potential source of microplastics in the environment. We prepared microplastics from polypropylene medical masks and characterised their size, shape, organic chemical leaching, and acute toxicity to the planktonic crustacean Daphnia magna. The three layers of the masks were separately milled and characterised. Each of the inner frontal, middle filtering, and outer layers yielded different types of microplastics: fibres were obtained from the inner and outer layer, but irregular fragments from the middle layer. The shape of the obtained microplastics differed from the initial fibrous structure of the intact medical mask layers, which indicates that the material is deformed during cryo-milling. The chemical compositions of plastics-associated chemicals also varied between the different layers. Typically, the inner layer contained more chemicals related to antimicrobial function and flavouring. The other two layers also contained antioxidants and their degradation products, plasticisers, cross-linking agents, antistatic agents, lubricants, and non-ionic surfactants. An acute study with D. magna showed that these microplastics do not cause immobility but do physically interact with the daphnids. Further long-term studies with these microplastics are needed using a suite of test organisms. Indeed, studies with other polypropylene microplastics have shown numerous adverse effects on other organisms at concentrations that have already been reported in the environment. Further efforts should be made to investigate the environmental hazards of polypropylene microplastics from medical masks and how to handle this new source of environmental burden. COVID-19 pandemic plastics-associated chemicals Daphnia magna fibres fragments nanofibres polypropylene microplastics single-use plastic pandemija COVID-19 kemikalije dodane plastiki vodna bolha vlakna delci nepravilnih oblik nanovlakna polipropilenska mikroplastika plastika za enkratno uporabo true false true Springer Nature Angleški jezik Slovenski jezik © The Author(s). 2021 Neznano 2022-11-23 14:42:14 2023-05-05 08:25:16 2023-05-06 03:35:33 0000-00-00 00:00:00 2022 0 0 Article no.: 1; Nasl. z nasl. zaslona; Opis vira z dne 28. 1. 2021; str. 1-15 Vol. 2 Jan. 2022 0000-00-00 Zaloznikova Objavljeno NiDoloceno 0000-00-00 0000-00-00 2022-01-04 502 2662-4966 10.1186/s43591-021-00020-0 92061443 s43591-021-00020-0.pdf s43591-021-00020-0.pdf 1 90AF9F3AB0FFCE728C934AAA1C8F624E fd52fd034242d7accc3f56e490893bf88266e5a84a01cd5e90a0c76ab4d501a4 42997380-6b2c-11ed-a69a-001a4af901a5 https://dirros.openscience.si/Dokument.php?lang=slv&id=20947 RAZ_Jemec_Kokalj_Anita_2022.doc RAZ_Jemec_Kokalj_Anita_2022.doc 1 7D11DA4F6B3253EFDB4D15C581A0055F 410acfa3fa87dc13544dcc972624d9166b6aff9ae154ab2cab026fe515603aa2 c42716a9-eafc-11ed-a314-001a4af901a5 https://dirros.openscience.si/Dokument.php?lang=slv&id=22260 https://microplastics.springeropen.com/articles/10.1186/s43591-021-00020-0 0 b4bfeff9-eafc-11ed-a314-001a4af901a5 https://dirros.openscience.si/Dokument.php?lang=slv&id=22259 Zavod za gradbeništvo Slovenije 0 0 0