Plastic pollution is an increasing global environmental problem. In the last decade, the impacts of microplastics on the environment and to animal and human health have been at the centre of scientific and public interest. Microplastics are small plastic particles with a diameter of less than 5 mm of various types, shapes, colours and sources (primary, secondary). Wastewater treatment plants have a significant impact on the accumulation of microplastics in freshwater environments. Microplastics act as vectors for various persistent organic pollutants that have the potential for biomagnification through the food chain and as vectors for diverse microbial communities. Microplastics pose an ecotoxicological and ecological risk to aquatic ecosystems. Numerous studies report the impact of microplastics on a wide variety of freshwater organisms from algae, invertebrates to fish species, and on the transmission of microplastics across different trophic levels and accumulation in different organ systems. Microplastics can have harmful effects on organisms such as injuries and lacerations of body tissues, growth inhibition, starvation, immune response alterations, transcriptional and metabolic changes, behavioural and reproductive disorders, desorption of persistent organic pollutants, reduced viability and even death.
|
