Environmental Impacts of Personal Protective Clothing Used to Combat COVID‐ 19

Abstract

Personal protective clothing is critical to shield users from highly infectious diseases including COVID‐19. Such clothing is predominantly single‐use, made of plastic‐based synthetic fibers such as polypropylene and polyester, low cost and able to provide protection against pathogens. However, the environmental impacts of synthetic fiber‐based clothing are significant and well‐documented. Despite growing environmental concerns with single‐use plastic‐based protective clothing, the recent COVID‐19 pandemic has seen a significant increase in their use, which could result in a further surge of oceanic plastic pollution, adding to the mass of plastic waste that already threatens marine life. In this review, the nature of the raw materials involved in the production of such clothing, as well as manufacturing techniques and the personal protective equipment supply chain are briefly discussed. The environmental impacts at critical points in the protective clothing value chain are identified from production to consumption, focusing on water use, chemical pollution, CO 2 emissions, and waste. On the basis of these environmental impacts, the need for fundamental changes in the business model is outlined, including increased usage of reusable protective clothing, addressing supply chain “bottlenecks”, establishing better waste management, and the use of sustainable materials and processes without associated environmental problems.

Humanization of care: challenges after Covid-19 pandemic

“…The textile industry could direct efforts to develop intelligent textiles for PPE confection that are safe, antimicrobial, comfortable, and visually less frightening to the patients, especially children and patients with special needs. Furthermore, the PPE's fabric should allow sterilization and reuse since management of hospital trash is already an overwhelming environmental problem, which has been certainly aggravated by the covid-19 pandemic, especially in relation to water consumption, pollution by chemical agents, carbon emission and waste production (Costa, 2021;Uddin et al, 2021).…”

Graphene‐Based Technologies for Tackling COVID‐19 and Future Pandemics

“…[69] Furthermore, recent progress in 2DM-based printed electronics will offer low-cost and large-scale fabrication of printed biosensors. [129] Wearable electronics has demonstrated great potential for personalised healthcare applications by monitoring physiological conditions. Graphene and other 2DM offer truly multifunctional wearable electronics platforms that could potentially monitor patients' vital signs continuously in a non-invasive way.…”

COVID-19 Pandemic: Public Health Risk Assessment and Risk Mitigation Strategies

“…Though developed countries ensured a steady supply of PPE kits, including personal protective clothing (PPC) [139], those developing countries are yet to fulfill their supply chain [160]. There is a need for further developments to ensure the supply chain [161] and safer disposal of single-use fabrics used in protective clothing to reduce negative impacts on the environment [162]. Future research developments should consider ways to increase safety, efficiency, and accessibility of PPC globally with reduced impact on the environment.…”