During the Covid-19 pandemic, personal protection equipment (PPE) was widely used to control the virus further spared. In this study, the presence of PPE wastes along the coastline of Bushehr port, the Persian Gulf from nine stations was investigated (4 times during 40 days), and their potential for microplastics (MPs) creation was preliminarily assessed. In total, more than 2380 PPE were collected in the study area. No significant differences were found between various beaches regarding their types and common activities. In addition, the estimated disposal rate of PPE per day and year is 350 and 127,750 items, respectively. More than 10% of the collected PPE from Bushehr's coastal areas on each sampling day were damaged. Based on the microscopic analysis, the left surgical masks and torn plastic gloves in the coastal regions are emerging sources of secondary microfibers and MP particles (mostly fragments and films) in the marine environments, respectively.

No abstract

No abstract

Removal of high fluoride contents from aqueous solutions by inexpensive, and biocompatible biosorbent is a main concern for human health. In the present study the efficacy of Rhizopus oryzae fungal biomass in removal of fluoride from aqueous solutions considering the effects of different parameters such as contact time (10-180 min), initial fluoride concentration (2-10 mg/L), and biosorbent dose (0.25-2 g/L) was studied in a batch system. The optimum condition for the maximum fluoride biosorption (90.5%) was obtained at 2 g/L biosorbent dose, 30 min contact time and 2 mg/L initial fluoride concentration. The Langmuir model (R 2 = 0.9844) fitted better than the other models and showed a homogeneous biosorption surface with the possibility of a monolayer biosorption of fluoride by biosorbent. The Langmuir maximum biosorption capacity of fluoride for R. oryzae was obtained at 1.16 mg/g. The biosorption kinetic was controlled by the pseudo-second-order (R 2 = 0.9999) model and based on the intra-particle diffusion model; the fluoride biosorption rate was not controlled only by the mechanisms of intra-particle diffusion. Consequently, the results showed that fungal biomass can be used as a suitable biosorbent for fluoride removal from aqueous solutions.