Emerging pollutant in surface water bodies: a review on monitoring, analysis, mitigation measures and removal technologies of micro-plastics

• Published in: Environmental geochemistry and health Vol. 46; no. 7; p. 214
• Main Authors: Gani, Abdul, Pathak, Shray, Hussain, Athar, Shukla, Anoop Kumar, Chand, Sasmita
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Dordrecht Springer Netherlands 01-07-2024; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: Aquatic environment; Biochemical oxygen demand; Developing countries; Drinking water; Earth and Environmental Science; Environment; Environmental Chemistry; Environmental degradation; Environmental Health; Environmental Monitoring - methods; Fibers; Fluctuations; Fresh Water - chemistry; Geochemistry; India; Industrial pollution; LDCs; Microplastics; Microplastics - analysis; Mitigation; Oxygen demand; Oxygen requirement; Phosphates; Plastic pollution; Plastics; Pollutant load; Pollutants; Pollution load; Population growth; Public Health; Review Paper; Sediment; Sediment samplers; Sediment samples; Soil Science & Conservation; Specific conductivity; Surface water; Sustainable development; Sustainable Development Goals; Terrestrial Pollution; Total oxygen demand; Urban planning; Water analysis; Water bodies; Water Pollutants, Chemical - analysis; Water pollution; Water sampling; India; Pollution monitoring; Analytical methods; Removal technologies; Toxicity; Mitigation strategies
• ISSN: 0269-4042; 1573-2983; 1573-2983
• DOI: 10.1007/s10653-024-01992-7

Water bodies play a crucial role in supporting life, maintaining the environment, and preserving the ecology for the people of India. However, in recent decades, human activities have led to various alterations in aquatic environments, resulting in environmental degradation through pollution. The safety of utilizing surface water sources for drinking and other purposes has come under intense scrutiny due to rapid population growth and industrial expansion. Surface water pollution due to micro-plastics (MPs) (plastics < 5 mm in size) is one of the emerging pollutants in metropolitan cities of developing countries because of its utmost resilience and synthetic nature. Recent studies on the surface water bodies (river, pond, Lake etc.) portrait the correlation between the MPs level with different parameters of pollution such as specific conductivity, total phosphate, and biological oxygen demand. Fibers represent the predominant form of MPs discovered in surface water bodies, exhibiting fluctuations across seasons. Consequently, present study prioritizes understanding the adaptation, prevalence, attributes, fluctuations, and spatial dispersion of MPs in both sediment and surface water environments. Furthermore, the study aims to identify existing gaps in the current understanding and underscore opportunities for future investigation. From the present study, it has been reported that, the concentration of MPs in the range of 0.2–45.2 items/L at the Xisha Islands in the south China sea, whereas in India it was found in the range of 96 items/L in water samples and 259 items/kg in sediment samples. This would certainly assist the urban planners in achieving sustainable development goals to mitigate the increasing amount of emergent pollutant load.