Environmental Contamination, Toxic Effect, and Risk Assessment of Microplastics and Plastic Additives
A special issue of Toxics (ISSN 2305-6304). This special issue belongs to the section "Emerging Contaminants".
Deadline for manuscript submissions: 31 December 2025 | Viewed by 1033
Special Issue Editors
Interests: emerging contaminants; persistent organic pollutants; environmental chemistry; environmental behavior; risk assessment
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Interests: emerging contaminants; microbial ecology; environmental behavior
Interests: emerging contaminants; environmental behavior; soil ecology; microbial interactions; soil functions
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
The widespread presence of microplastics and their associated chemical additives in the environment has become a pressing global concern. Microplastics persist in ecosystems for decades, accumulating in terrestrial, aquatic, and even atmospheric environments. Due to their small size and resistance to degradation, they are easily ingested by organisms, leading to bioaccumulation and potential biomagnification through food webs. Furthermore, plastic additives—such as plasticizers, flame retardants, and antioxidants—can leach into the environment, exacerbating toxicity risks to biota and humans. Emerging evidence suggests that microplastics and their additives may induce oxidative stress, endocrine disruption, immunotoxicity, and other adverse effects in exposed organisms, raising urgent questions about their long-term ecological and health impacts.
This Special Issue, “Environmental Contamination, Toxic Effect, and Risk Assessment of Microplastics and Plastic Additives”, seeks to compile high-quality original research and review articles that address, but are not limited to, the following key topics: (i) Occurrence and Fate: Monitoring and modeling the distribution, transport, and transformation of microplastics and plastic additives in different environmental matrices; (ii) Toxicological Mechanisms and Ecological Risks: Investigating the physiological and molecular toxicity of microplastics and plastic additives in aquatic and terrestrial organisms, and evaluating their ecological consequences in natural ecosystems; and (iii) Human Exposure and Health Risks: Assessing pathways of human exposure and potential health effects, including epidemiological and in vitro/in vivo toxicological studies.
We particularly welcome large-scale field studies, long-term ecological observations, and interdisciplinary approaches combining environmental chemistry, toxicology, and risk assessment. This Special Issue aims to advance our scientific understanding of the growing threat of microplastics and their additives to environmental and human health.
Dr. Yu Wang
Dr. Chu Peng
Guest Editors
Dr. Lili Rong
Guest Editor Assistant
Manuscript Submission Information
Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.
Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Toxics is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.
Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.
Keywords
- microplastics
- plastic additives
- environmental contamination
- biomonitoring
- bioaccumulation
- toxicity mechanism
- ecological risk assessment
- human health effect
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