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Cited by 1,092

The DOI matches its Crossref record; 14 of the 14 references it cites were found in a registry or an index.

Estimation of the mass of microplastics ingested – A pivotal first step towards human health risk assessment

Senathirajah, Kala, Attwood, Simon, Bhagwat, Geetika, Carbery, Maddison, Wilson, Scott, Palanisami, Thava·2021·Journal of Hazardous Materials

Abstract

The ubiquitous presence of microplastics in the food web has been established. However, the mass of microplastics exposure to humans is not defined, impeding the human health risk assessment. Our objectives were to extract the data from the available evidence on the number and mass of microplastics from various sources, to determine the uncertainties in the existing data, to set future research directions, and derive a global average rate of microplastic ingestion to assist in the development of human health risk assessments and effective management and policy options. To enable the comparison of microplastics exposure across a range of sources, data extraction and standardization was coupled with the adoption of conservative assumptions. Following the analysis of data from fifty-nine publications, an average mass for individual microplastics in the 0-1 mm size range was calculated. Subsequently, we estimated that globally on average, humans may ingest 0.1-5 g of microplastics weekly through various exposure pathways. This was the first attempt to transform microplastic counts into a mass value relevant to human toxicology. The determination of an ingestion rate is fundamental to assess the human health risks of microplastic ingestion. These findings will contribute to future human health risk assessment frameworks.

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Metadata

Authors
Senathirajah, K., Attwood, S., Bhagwat, G., Carbery, M., Wilson, S., & Palanisami, T.
Venue
Journal of Hazardous Materials
Publisher
Elsevier BV
Published
2021-02
Volume
404
Issue
Pt B
Pages
124004
ISSN
0304-3894 (ISSN-L)
OpenAlex
W3091811008
Cited by
1,092
References
14
FWCI
18.56
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
closed

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CoChat. (2026). Citation check: Estimation of the mass of microplastics ingested – A pivotal first step towards human health risk assessment. https://app.cochat.ai/papers/10.1016/j.jhazmat.2020.124004
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Senathirajah, K., Attwood, S., Bhagwat, G., Carbery, M., Wilson, S., & Palanisami, T. (2021). Estimation of the mass of microplastics ingested – A pivotal first step towards human health risk assessment. Journal of Hazardous Materials. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jhazmat.2020.124004

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