Microplastics—A New Journal on the Environmental Challenges and Adverse Health Effects of Microplastics

Microplastics is a new, open-access, peer-reviewed journal by MDPI that will provide an advanced forum for scientists to discuss the challenges faced by the ubiquitous presence of microplastics in the environment, as well as their impact on human health and ecosystem services. Microplastics (MPs) have been found in all environmental compartments such as seawater and freshwater bodies, municipal wastewater and urban runoff, agricultural soils, sediments, and air. The level of plastic debris, mainly as microplastics, in the environment is reaching unprecedented levels and there is worldwide concern about their adverse effects on both living organisms and the environment.

MPs are less than 5 mm in size and can be either primary, i.e., manufactured at such sizes and used as industrial feedstock material and/or in various consumer products, or secondary, i.e., resulting from the fragmentation of larger pieces of plastic due to weathering processes. Fragmentation may also yield nanoplastics, i.e., smaller fragments with characteristic sizes less than 1 μm, which are of a greater concern to human health than MPs are.

This journal will publish critical reviews, regular research articles, and short communications, and will host special issues on areas of increased importance and relevance to primary and secondary MPs, including nanoplastics. There are significant knowledge gaps that research in the coming years is expected to fill and lead to sustainable mitigation strategies to combat the adverse effects of MPs.

The new Microplastics journal is anticipated to tackle, among others, the following challenges:

• Fate of microplastics in the environment, including monitoring, transport modeling, and effects/impacts in various environmental compartments.
• Detection methods, including the development of reliable and validated techniques for MPs characterization and quantification, and in particular, the development or improvement of MP detection methods in complex environmental matrices.
• Microplastics as carriers for hydrophobic chemicals, heavy metals, and antibiotic resistance genes. Ramifications of the MPs and adsorbed chemicals, if ingested, on animal and human health. The effect of such environmental contaminants on accumulation, degradation, transfer, and toxicity to living organisms needs to be further investigated.
• Human exposure to microplastics and nanoplastics through ingestion of food, drinking water, and inhalation of airborne particulates results in adverse health effects that need further investigation.
• Biodegradation of microplastics and nanoplastics is an important mechanism to determine their environmental fate. Emphasis should be given to the biodegradation of MPs, which are -C-C- backbone or biodegradable polymers. In addition, technologies for treating thermosets need to be examined.
• Modeling the behavior of MPs in the environment from generation to mineralization or sequestration or ingestion, including global transport modeling of plastic fragments.

Our aim is to publish original articles covering all aspects related to microplastics: their sources, sinks, and environmental fate; potential effects on ecosystem services and human life; and mitigation measures to reduce their adverse effects.