“…The extent of the COVID-19 pandemic and the efforts to control the disease and to treat the infected people has led to significant changes in the production and consumption of plastics, pharmaceuticals and disinfectants as well as in pattern of their residues in the environment. Early reports on the environmental effects of the pandemic registered an overall improvement in air quality (reduction of CO, NO 2 , NO x , PM2.5, PM10 and VOC levels), groundwater quality, beach cleanup and noise pollution due to the confinement and cessation of many activities [ 2 , 3 ]. This improvement was clearly temporal.…”