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Plastic pollution is now recognized as a global environmental issue that can affect the health of biota and ecosystems. Now that a growing number of species and taxa are known to ingest a diverse range of sizes and types of plastics and retain the plastics in their guts, there are increasing questions relating to the movement of plastics through food webs, and how biota may directly and indirectly ingest plastics. Here, we synthesize what is known from the published, peer-reviewed literature about plastic ingestion by animals and identify critical gaps in our knowledge. We systematically reviewed and examined the literature for studies that reported ingested plastics in marine and freshwater biota at a global scale. Our objective was to inform discussions and future studies regarding what we know about plastic ingestion and fate in food webs. We assessed what regions, ecosystems, and food webs have been studied to date and whether potential information may already be available to assess if trophic transfer of plastics may be occurring. We found 160 relevant publications through 2016. Most studies were concentrated in specific regions and in specific ecosystem types, with freshwater studies being the most limited. Moreover, most studies examined one species at a time with only a handful of regions with multiple taxa examined across multiple studies. Twenty-one percent of the regions have no published data on plastic ingestion to date. Although some studies have measured ingestion in multiple species across trophic levels, few have tested the hypothesis that plastics are transferred across trophic levels. Moreover, none have addressed questions related to biomagnification. While our review suggests that numerous papers have recorded the ingestion of plastics by biota across many trophic levels, habitats, and geographic regions, many questions regarding how or whether biota retain, bioaccumulate, biomagnify, and trophically transfer plastics still need to be addressed.

Author order is crucial; it is the currency of academia. Within STEM disciplines, women and junior researchers--those who are the primary constituents of our lab-- consistently receive less credit for equal work. Our Civic Laboratory for Environmental Action Research (CLEAR) is a feminist marine science laboratory at Memorial University of Newfoundland, Canada. Recognizing that the stakes are high for CLEAR members, we have developed an approach to author order that emphasizes process and equity rather than system and equality. Our process is premised on: 1) deciding author order vy consensus; 2) valuing care work and other forms of labour that are usually left out of scientific value systems; and 3) taking intersectional social standing into account.  Although CLEAR’s approach differs from others’, we take author order seriously as a compromised but dominant structure within science we must contend with. That is, rather than attempt to circumvent author order, we stay with the trouble. This article outlines this process. 

The COVID-19 pandemic led to a sudden global increase in the production, consumption, and mismanagement of personal protective equipment (PPE). As plastic-based PPE such as disposable face masks and gloves have become widely used, human exposure to PPE-derived pollutants may occur through indirect and direct pathways. This review explores the potential health impacts related to plastic-based PPE through these pathways. Face masks release microplastics, which are directly inhaled during use or transported through the environment. The latter can adsorb chemical contaminants and harbor pathogenic microbiota, and once consumed by organisms, they can translocate to multiple organs upon intake, potentially causing detrimental and cytotoxic effects. However, more research is required to have a comprehensive overview of the human health effects.

The COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in an unprecedented surge of production, consumption, and disposal of single-use plastics (SUPs) and personal protective equipment (PPE) by the public. This widespread use of mostly plastic items like face masks and disposable gloves has led to global reports of improper disposal of potentially infectious PPE both in our urban and natural environments. Due to international travel restrictions during the pandemic, many research programs targeted at measuring plastic pollution were halted. These disruptions to research programs have stunted the ability to assess the true quantities of SUPs and PPE being mismanaged from the waste stream into the environment. This article calls for increased citizen science participation in collecting plastic pollution data both during and post pandemic. By initiating this dialogue and raising attention to the importance and potential of citizen science data collection, data can be used to develop globally informed plastic pollution mitigation strategies.