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Application of Synchrotron Radiation Technology in Marine Biochemistry and Food Science Studies
Published in Se-Kwon Kim, Marine Biochemistry, 2023
Toshiki Nakano, Masafumi Hidaka
Plastics and synthetic organic polymers are emerging pollutants in aquatic and terrestrial environments. Because the seafloor covers approximately 70% of the earth’s surface, it is considered a major sink for plastic marine waste (or marine debris and marine litter). Jambeck et al. calculated that 274 million metric tons (Mt) of plastic waste was generated in 2010, with 4.8‒12.7 million Mt of plastic waste entering the ocean (Morales-Caselles et al. 2021; Jambeck et al. 2015). Similarly, plastic waste leakage for all aquatic ecosystems in 2016 was estimated to be approximately 20 Mt (Canals et al. 2020). In fact, the annual production of plastics went from 1.5 million tons in the 1950s to 360 million tons in 2018. The most common plastics in commercial products are polyethylene (PE), polypropylene (PP), polystyrene (PS), PE terephthalate (PET), and polyvinyl chloride (PVC), and PE, PP, and PS are the most widespread plastics found in the environment. Among these types of plastics, PE accounts for 90% and is the most common plastic found in the environment (Larue et al. 2021; Park and Park 2021).
Lifestyle and Diet
Published in Chuong Pham-Huy, Bruno Pham Huy, Food and Lifestyle in Health and Disease, 2022
Chuong Pham-Huy, Bruno Pham Huy
Plastics are synthetic organic polymers. They are composed of hydrocarbons that are prepared from fossil fuel (petroleum) or other products under the action of heat (214). Plastics liberate their toxic monomers, bisphenol-A (BPA) and di-(2-ethylhexyl)-phthalate (DEHP), during decomposition into the environment or during contact with foods or human tissues. BPA and DEHP are well-known strong endocrine disruptors which can interfere with human hormone systems, and consequently, can engender a number of diseases such as infertility, sex deformation, retardation of brain development in children, and cancers of prostate, breast, thyroid (213). At present, BPA has been one of the first plastic materials to be recognized for its potential harm by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) (213). In response to such concerns, BPA also recently has been banned in the United States as well as in Canada and the European Union from use in infant bottles and spill-proof cups for toddlers. Do not heat or boil food in plastic containers by microwave. Replace plastic items with porcelain or glass objects. Detectable levels of bisphenol A have been found in the urine of 95% of the adult population of the United States (213).
Recent Trends in Bio-Medical Waste, Challenges and Opportunities
Published in K. Gayathri Devi, Kishore Balasubramanian, Le Anh Ngoc, Machine Learning and Deep Learning Techniques for Medical Science, 2022
While typical solid and liquid trash does not need to be treated before being disposed of, practically all infectious trash should be handled beforehand. The expense of disposing of infectious garbage might be 10 times that of routine garbage disposal. Any approach that lowers the cost of infectious waste disposal lowers the quantity of infectious waste produced. syringes, blood, urine bags, catheters, and other things made of plastic are used in health care. A decrease in sperm count, genital abnormalities, and a rise in breast cancer incidences have all been related to plastic. When plastics are burnt, carcinogens such as dioxin and furan are produced. Because of its non-biodegradable nature, plastic has become a serious environmental and health hazard. Long-term, landfilling, or recycling are all ecologically sound ways to dispose of plastic garbage. Before returning to the seller, all discarded plastic should be shredded. The development of environmentally friendly, biodegradable polymers is urgently required. It is also critical to reduce the amount of plastic garbage produced. For medical practitioners, biomedical waste management is just as vital as a treatment strategy. All health care employees and auxiliary people from different health care institutions should be educated about the present state of scientific biomedical waste management systems, as well as their value and advantages to patients, staff, and the community as a whole.
Chronic bisphenol A exposure induces temporal neurobehavioral transformation and augmented chromatin condensation in the periventricular gray zone of zebrafish brain
Published in Drug and Chemical Toxicology, 2022
Pradyumna Kumar Sahoo, Lilesh Kumar Pradhan, Saroj Kumar Das
To decipher the possible role of BPA in inducing chromatin condensation leading to cellular damage (cell death), we conducted Hoechst staining using Hoechst 33342. As the oxidative stress-induced cellular injury is correlated with pyknosis through the induction of chromatin condensation, our present findings strongly advocate that there was a progressive increase in Hoechst-positive neurons in the PGZ region of the zebrafish brain after temporal BPA exposure (Ghavami et al. 2014). However, our basic observation did not confirm the involvement of apoptotic signaling pathways in the induction of these neurodegenerative phenotypes in the zebrafish brain. Although there are several studies that shows the neuroprotective efficacy of some flavonoid derivatives against BPA-induced neurotoxicity, their mechanisms of action are unclear (Akintunde et al. 2020, Sahoo et al. 2020), and thus, future research directed toward deciphering the underlying signaling cascades may unravel the development of strategies for countering BPA-induced neurotoxicity. Being an industrial chemical with potent neurotoxicity, the use of plastics and its products with BPA need to be checked by introducing special regulation toward its unprotected disposal to ambient ecosystem in developed and developing countries. Studies need to be conducted to elucidate the underlying mechanism toward the neurotoxic potential of BPA and other bisphenol analogs using natural compound intervention.
Safety net ageing: level of confidence in the degradation evaluation
Published in International Journal of Occupational Safety and Ergonomics, 2022
Otherwise, different standards have been developed and proposed for ageing tests: Standard Nos ISO 877-1:2009 [15], ISO 877-2:2009 [16] and ISO 877-3:2018 [17] provide information and guidance on the selection and use of the methods of exposure to solar radiation. These methods of exposure to solar radiation are applicable to plastic materials of all kinds as well as to products and portions of products.Standard Nos EN ISO 4892-1:2016 [18], EN ISO 4892-2:2013 [19], EN ISO 4892-3:2016 [20] and EN ISO 4892-4:2013 [21] describe the methods of exposure to laboratory light sources for plastics. Standard No. EN ISO 4892-1 Part 1:2016 gives general guidance. The other part concerns the various types of laboratory light: xenon arc lamps, UV fluorescent lamps and open-flame carbon arc lamps. This standard is commonly used in other fields (e.g., the automobile industry) to analyze ageing of plastic materials subjected to climatic hazards.Standard Nos EN ISO 16474-1:2013–16474-4:2013 [22–25] specify the methods of exposure to laboratory light sources for paints and varnishes.
Microplastics and nanoplastics science: collecting and characterizing airborne microplastics in fine particulate matter
Published in Nanotoxicology, 2021
Luna Rahman, Gary Mallach, Ryan Kulka, Sabina Halappanavar
Clean filters (Teflon and silver membrane filters) or filters deposited with diluted PS beads of different sizes and air dried as well as filters containing air samples, were used for extraction experiments. Methanol (Omnisolve, 99.9%, Sigma Aldrich, Oakville, Ontario) was used as a solvent to extract particles from the filters. To avoid MP contamination with plastics arising from experimental procedures, the use of labware made of plastic materials was minimized and instead, cotton lab coats, glass tubes and Hamilton syringes were used. A laminar flow hood was used during sample preparation, adequate procedural blanks (blank PM2.5 samples) were analyzed to confirm that MP detected in environmental samples are not introduced during sample collection or analysis procedures.