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Review
. 2022;20(3):1777-1800.
doi: 10.1007/s10311-021-01384-8. Epub 2022 Jan 13.

Occurrence, toxicity and remediation of polyethylene terephthalate plastics. A review

Vaishali Dhaka #  1 , Simranjeet Singh #  2 , Amith G Anil  3 , T S Sunil Kumar Naik  2 , Shashank Garg  1 , Jastin Samuel  4 , Manoj Kumar  5 , Praveen C Ramamurthy  2 , Joginder Singh  1
Affiliations
Review

Occurrence, toxicity and remediation of polyethylene terephthalate plastics. A review

Vaishali Dhaka et al. Environ Chem Lett. 2022.

Abstract

Polyethylene terephthalate is a common plastic in many products such as viscose rayon for clothing, and packaging material in the food and beverage industries. Polyethylene terephthalate has beneficial properties such as light weight, high tensile strength, transparency and gas barrier. Nonetheless, there is actually increasing concern about plastic pollution and toxicity. Here we review the properties, occurrence, toxicity, remediation and analysis of polyethylene terephthalate as macroplastic, mesoplastic, microplastic and nanoplastic. Polyethylene terephthalate occurs in groundwater, drinking water, soils and sediments. Plastic uptake by humans induces diseases such as reducing migration and proliferation of human mesenchymal stem cells of bone marrow and endothelial progenitor cells. Polyethylene terephthalate can be degraded by physical, chemical and biological methods.

Keywords: Analysis; Biodegradation; Ecotoxicology; PET; Persistence.

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Conflict of interest statement

Conflict of interestThe authors have no potential conflict of interest to declare.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Potential sources of polyethylene terephthalate in air, land, water and its associated negative health hazards on various human organs
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
Microbe-assisted degradation of polyethylene terephthalate and possible recovery of the degraded products
Fig. 3
Fig. 3
Different analytical techniques for detection, characterization and confirmation of the metabolites and degraded polyethylene terephthalate in the environment
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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