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Microplastic pollution, a threat to marine ecosystem and human health: a short review

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Abstract

Human populations are using oceans as their household dustbins, and microplastic is one of the components which are not only polluting shorelines but also freshwater bodies globally. Microplastics are generally referred to particles with a size lower than 5 mm. These microplastics are tiny plastic granules and used as scrubbers in cosmetics, hand cleansers, air-blasting. These contaminants are omnipresent within almost all marine environments at present. The durability of plastics makes it highly resistant to degradation and through indiscriminate disposal they enter in the aquatic environment. Today, it is an issue of increasing scientific concern because these microparticles due to their small size are easily accessible to a wide range of aquatic organisms and ultimately transferred along food web. The chronic biological effects in marine organisms results due to accumulation of microplastics in their cells and tissues. The potential hazardous effects on humans by alternate ingestion of microparticles can cause alteration in chromosomes which lead to infertility, obesity, and cancer. Because of the recent threat of microplastics to marine biota as well as on human health, it is important to control excessive use of plastic additives and to introduce certain legislations and policies to regulate the sources of plastic litter. By setup various plastic recycling process or promoting plastic awareness programmes through different social and information media, we will be able to clean our sea dustbin in future.

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Acknowledgments

SS, gratefully acknowledge SERB-DST, Govt. of India for the financial support (PDF/2016/000818). Authors thank Dr. Shubhra Majumder, CCC, The Ohio State University, Columbus, OH for carefully reading the manuscript.

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  1. Bioremediation and Metabolomics Research Group, Department of Chemistry and Chemical Sciences, School of Physical and Material Sciences, Central University of Himachal Pradesh, TAB, Shahpur, Kangra, Himachal Pradesh, 176206, India

    Shivika Sharma & Subhankar Chatterjee

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  1. Shivika Sharma
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  2. Subhankar Chatterjee
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Correspondence to Subhankar Chatterjee.

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Figure S1

A size-based definition, examples and composition of plastics and group of marine animals affected by plastic litter (GIF 226 kb)

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Sharma, S., Chatterjee, S. Microplastic pollution, a threat to marine ecosystem and human health: a short review. Environ Sci Pollut Res 24, 21530–21547 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-017-9910-8

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