A PLETHORA OF MICROPLASTIC POLLUTION STUDIES: THE NEED FOR A FORENSIC APPROACH

Abstract

Microplastic pollution has been under the magnifying glass for several years now. Existing data relating to microplastics on surface waters suggest that they are glob-ally widespread, but there are several gaps of knowledge in relation to understand how many there are in different locations, what is their composition, where do they come from and where they are going. What we need is a global collaborative effort to collect this information on a large scale. To date, standardized methodologies for the sampling and analysis of microplastics are still lacking, which therefore hinders the comparison of the reported data. This review summarizes the currently used methodologies for sampling and identifying microplastics in surface water, with the intention of contributing to the establishment of standardized and harmonized protocols. In addition, we focus our attention on the great potential that environmental forensic sciences have to face the delicate and insidious challenge of microplastic pollution, urging future research to go in this direction, in order to develop a rigorous and robust forensic method for microplastics study.