Fate of the face masks in the environment affect human and wildlife: tons of face masks are new source for the endocrine disrupting chemicals

Abstract

COVID-19 pandemic has become a major public health problem affecting the lives of billions of people worldwide. There is an effective vaccine treatment for the coronavirus infection, but self-isolation and self-protection are the important options to stop the spread of the virus. Usage of the surgical and other face masks are must during COVID-19 pandemic and millions of used masks are accumulating as trash in the environment every day worldwide. Face masks are made of plastic materials mainly polypropylene which is categorized as endocrine disruptor affecting both humans and wildlife. Contamination of face masks to soil, oceans, sea and air may have increased the amount of microplastics concentration and these microplastics from the face masks may have various negative effects on the environment. However, what needs to be done to protect the environment and public health is to dispose of these masks in a very convenient way. Therefore, accurate elimination and collection of used face masks from the environment should be considered to protect our world. Nowadays there are different types of vaccines are in the protecting against death, hospitalization and seriousness of the COVID-19 infection but using face masks are simple, seems safe and effective way from protection against the disease. In this review, we aimed to draw attention to the fact that a using a face mask is very important for staying safe, but they may cause environmental pollution and have adverse effects on directly health and environment.