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, CO2 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.
Highlights
The worldwide demand for personal protective equipment (PPE) has increased in recent months to an unprecedented level, due to the COVID-19 pandemic.[1]
Despite growing environmental concerns with single-use plastic-based protective clothing, the recent COVID19 pandemic has seen a significant increase in their use, that could result in a further surge of oceanic plastic pollution, adding to mass of plastic waste that already threatens marine life
We identify the environmental impacts at critical points in the protective clothing value chain from production to consumption, focusing on water use, chemical pollution, CO2 emissions and waste
Summary
The worldwide demand for personal protective equipment (PPE) has increased in recent months to an unprecedented level, due to the COVID-19 pandemic.[1]. PPE is defined as “equipment worn to minimise exposure to hazards that cause serious workplace injuries and illnesses These injuries and illnesses may result from contact with chemical, radiological, physical, electrical, mechanical, or other workplace hazards.”[10] Amongst the PPEs, protective clothing is designed to protect the eye, face, head, leg, hand and arm, body, and hearing organs,[11] and is classified as Level A, B, C and D for the general population, where Level A offers the highest level of the skin, eye, and respiratory protection.[12] Personal protective clothing for medical or healthcare applications are used to mitigate the risks from exposure to hazardous substances, including body fluids and to minimise the risk of cross-infections.[13] Such single use protective clothing are made of synthetic fibres such as polypropylene and polyester, due to their low-cost, hydrophobic nature and better barrier properties.[13, 14] the production of synthetic fibres from fossil oil is associated with significant carbon emission. The properties of such fibres (e.g. inherent absorbency) determine the level of protection against the contaminants/microorganism, with microfibres usually preferred when a higher level of protection needed
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