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Styrene is metabolised to a highly reactive and toxic epoxide, styrene oxide, which can interact with DNA causingamutationwhichmightinitiatecarcinogenesis.
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Polystyrene (PS) is a petroleum‐based plastic made from styrene (vinyl benzene) monomer. Since it was first commercially produced in 1930, it has been used for a wide range of commercial, packaging and building purposes. In 2012, approximately 32.7 million tonnes of styrene were produced globally, and polystyrene is now a ubiquitous household item...
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... andemergesfromresearchintostyrene'smetabolite(i.e.styreneoxide)asachemicallyhighly reactive epoxide, which might chemically bond to DNA and thus initiate carcinogenesis (Figure 2).Itisnowlargelyacceptedthatstyreneoxideislikelytoberesponsibleforstyrene's carcinogenicity, and since there are likely to be species and inter-individual differences in metabolism,therearealsolikelytobedifferencesinsusceptibilitytocarcinogenicitybetween speciesandindividuals [10]. ...
Context 2
... tivity,itinteractswithcellsystemscausingwidespreadmetabolicdamage.Inparticular,sty- renecanchemicallyreactwithspecificcomponentsofDNAresultinginchanges,whichaffect therateofdivisionofcells( Figure 2).Thismutationisthebasisofchemicalcarcinogenesis andexplainswhystyreneisacarcinogeninanimalstudiesandreasonablyanticipatedtobe acarcinogeninhumans [14]. ...
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... They can also adsorb and concentrate persistent organic pollutants, leading to biomagnification. PS, a potential carcinogen and endocrine disruptor, can leach styrene monomers and bisphenol A, disrupting hormonal functions in organisms (Farrelly & Shaw, 2017). These MPs can function as vectors for hydrophobic pollutants, facilitating bioaccumulation, and their ingestion by marine organisms can lead to physical harm and chemical toxicity from leached substances. ...
This study explores spatiotemporal variations of microplastics (MPs) in beach sediments along India’s southeast coast, focusing on Tamil Nadu and Puducherry from 2020 to 2021. The MPs were extracted from the sediments through density separation and wet peroxidation. Following extraction, they were quantified and physically characterized using stereo-microscopy and chemically analyzed using ATR-FTIR. During the monsoon, Chennai (923 ± 380 MPs/kg) exhibited the highest MP abundance, followed by Puducherry (805 ± 222 MPs/kg), Nagapattinam (799 ± 257 MPs/kg), Thoothukudi (653 ± 258 MPs/kg), Rameswaram (585 ± 151 MPs/kg), and Kanyakumari (344 ± 71 MPs/kg). Similarly, in summer, Chennai (719 ± 192 MPs/kg) recorded the highest mean, trailed by Puducherry (645 ± 163 MPs/kg), Rameswaram (529 ± 138 MPs/kg), Nagapattinam (523 ± 95 MPs/kg), Thoothukudi (492 ± 104 MPs/kg), and Kanyakumari (335 ± 72 MPs/kg). Fibers predominated as the most common MP type. FTIR revealed polymers like polystyrene, polyethylene terephthalate, polyethylene, polypropylene, polyurethane, and polyamide. The Polymer Hazard Index indicated high polymer pollution risk, while the Pollution Load Index showed minimal contamination. The Potential Ecological Risk Index revealed low-to-medium MP pollution levels. Tailored strategies addressing plastic usage reduction and mitigation of terrestrial MP sources are imperative for coastal ecosystem resilience.
... The manufacturing of polystyrene is the leading contributor to these negative effects. Polystyrene is a commonly used plastic is derived from petroleum, the extraction and processing of which into polystyrene consumes non-renewable sources and contributes to resource depletion and ecosystem degradation [47,48]. Moreover, its manufacture requires significant amounts of energy and releases greenhouse gases and various chemicals which are all harmful to the environment and public health [48]. ...
... Polystyrene is a commonly used plastic is derived from petroleum, the extraction and processing of which into polystyrene consumes non-renewable sources and contributes to resource depletion and ecosystem degradation [47,48]. Moreover, its manufacture requires significant amounts of energy and releases greenhouse gases and various chemicals which are all harmful to the environment and public health [48]. As shown in Figure 7, comparing plastic, styrofoam, and biodegradable containers, styrofoam has less of an impact across all categories except fossil fuel depletion, where each container type has an impact of over 90%. ...
Plastic and microplastic contamination continue to be growing problems across the globe for both ecosystems and human health. Canada has banned single-use plastic products such as bags, cutlery, and foodservice ware (containers) to address and mitigate plastics and microplastic contamination. This study evaluates the life cycle of banned plastic products and their alternatives to determine whether environmental impacts can be mitigated. The environmental impacts of bags (plastic, paper, cotton), cutlery (plastic, wooden, biodegradable), and containers (plastic, styrofoam, biodegradable) were determined considering both domestic and imported products. The bag study saw paper bags having the highest environmental impacts and cotton bags with the lowest due to their reusability. For the cutlery study, plastic cutlery was the most impactful across all categories except for eutrophication and ozone depletion, where biodegradable cutlery was the most impactful by 25% and 35%, respectively. In the case of foodservice ware (containers), styrofoam was found to be the least impactful. Similar to cutlery, the plastic containers had the greatest impact except where the biodegradable container contributed more to ozone depletion and eutrophication by 25% and 45%, respectively. Local production reduced impacts across all categories. Furthermore, on a local scale, biodegradable cutlery had a greater impact on the smog and respiratory effects categories than plastic by 10% and 30%, respectively. The results of this study indicate that future regulations should focus on promoting and educating consumers on the use of reusable products over single-use products, funding research to mitigate challenges associated with waste management, and consider an informed ban on all single-use products and not just those made of plastic material to mitigate environmental impacts.
... Around 4.8-12.7 tons of PE plastic debris were believed to have entered the seas in 2010 [10]. PS MPs may be found in many forms, such as egg cartons, disposable cups, plates, and bowls [11]. In non-ferrous industries and small workshops, much untreated plastic trash is dumped into the environment [12]. ...
... Worldwide production of articles containing BUVs is increasing (Naksuwan et al., 2016;Farrelly and Shaw, 2017;Venoor et al., 2020) and include building materials, epoxy resins, insulating materials for high and medium voltage cables, automotive components (styrene polymers in foamed form, i.e. polystyrene, ethylene polymers, used e.g. for the production of bottles or synthetic fibres polypropylene production of packaging, buckets, medical containers and some bottles, lacquers), clothing, footwear, rubber and plastics (PVC, PET, PC, PA, ABS, polyurethane and others) (Peng et al., 2015;Nikafshar et al., 2017;Li et al., 2021;Sabzevari et al., 2021). In terms of production volume, the US Environmental Protection Agency has classified UV absorbers as HPVCs (High Production Volume Chemicals) (Giraudo et al., 2017). ...
... Packaging products made from styrofoam are currently widely used by the public as food wrappers, because styrofoam is practical, clean, resistant to hot and cold food or drinks. The large use of Styrofoam in urban areas, only making a major contribution as waste in urban areas, will have an impact on environmental pollution problems and threaten public health (Farrelly & Shaw, 2017). In connection with this, it is necessary to study the use of styrofoam decomposing bacteria to deal with styrofoam waste. ...
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... Styrene poses a severe threat to the ecological environment and human health. It is toxic, carcinogenic, and mutagenic according to the concentration in the ambient air [51,52]. In addition to harming human health, it contributes significantly to the depletion of the stratospheric ozone layer and regional ozone formation [53]. ...
Styrene adsorption has always been a research focus in the field of the gas environment due to its widespread usage. Removal of styrene using activated carbon has been verified because of the physicochemical properties of SMACs prepared by activating Silybum marianum L. waste powder. Hence, a series of novel SMACs were synthesized from NaOH, KOH, and H3PO4 ratio of 1:1–5 w/w and pyrolyzing at 450–950 °C and then washed activated carbon with HCl and NaOH. SMAC82, SMAC137, and the optimal AC (SMAC249) had the largest styrene adsorption capacity, 229, 170, and 136 mg/g for 700 ppm of styrene. Styrene is a typical model for volatile organic compounds (VOCs) in the atmosphere, and the findings demonstrated that it is rapidly absorbed into SMAC82, SMAC137, and SMAC249 through strong physical sorption. The calculated adsorption amounts showed that the styrene capture processes were feasible for adsorption within a suitable contact time and with excellent equilibrium adsorption capacities. Also, the results showed that the highest removal efficiency at 25 °C by the adsorption of SMAC82, SMAC137, and SMAC249 was 92%, 88%, and 86%, respectively. The efficiency results of SMAC82, SMAC137, and SMAC249 show that the styrene breakthrough at 25 °C compared to that of 35 and 45 °C increases approximately two times. Overall, this SMAC82 presented an excellent separation performance for styrene removal and can be a potential option for industrial applications of other VOCs in gas-phase, indicating good adsorption ability.
... Because it is lightweight compared to its volume, PS occupies a large amount of landfill space and can quickly become a pollution hazard to land and aquatic organisms. Styrene has been linked with adverse health effects in humans and is a known carcinogen (Farrelly and Shaw 2017). ...
Polystyrene (PS) is a synthetic polymer widely used as a packaging material and in thermal insulation of buildings. At end-of-life, there are not many recycling management options of PS because of the reduced incentive and high cost. PS is non-biodegradable, and consequently, the disposal of this product causes serious health and environmental concerns. This study discusses the application of thermal treatment to modify the properties of PS waste foams. Both expanded and extended polystyrene were collected from building demolitions and subjected to different temperature treatments and duration. The effect of the treatment was investigated on the density, structure, glass transition temperature, mechanical properties (hardness, compression strength), thermal conductivity, and sound absorption of treated PS. The results showed that density increased with treatment temperature, which had a corresponding effect on the evaluated properties. The study concluded that thermal treatment is a beneficial way to improve the mechanical properties of PS waste from buildings. However, a trade-off between application and relevance still needs to be ascertained, as the thermal and acoustic insulation properties of PS decreased with the treatment.
... The composition of MPs varies depending upon the polymer from which it is formed and polystyrene (PS) is one among them which is biochemically inert, commonly used and formed by polymerisation of aromatic styrene monomers. The leached unbound styrene into the environment also causes health risks (Farrelly and Shaw, 2017). ...
A ubiquitous presence of microplastics and nanoplastics created a new toxicological research area arising concept of "plastic rivers". But, the precise molecular mechanisms by which its exposure affects developmental neurotoxicity are poorly understood. Hence, in the present investigation, healthy zebrafish embryos were exposed to different concentrations of 500 nm polystyrene microplastics (0.1 ppm, 1 ppm and 10 ppm) to assess the neurotoxicity and the underlying biomolecular mechanism. On the last day of exposure, behaviour, accumulation, embryotoxicity, acridine orange staining, antioxidant enzyme assay, acetylcholinesterase assay, nitric oxide (NO) estimation, along with neurotransmitter (serotonin, dopamine) quantification and gene expression using qRT-PCR (bdnf, p53, bcl-2, caspase-3, caspase-9) were performed. As a result, we found that zebrafish embryos ingest and bioaccumulate microplastic without causing any morphological changes and lethality. The survival and hatching rates of the embryos were also unaffected but the swimming behaviour patterns were found to be altered. Further, acridine orange staining exhibited more apoptosis in treated groups with increased p53, caspase-3, caspase-9 and decreased bcl-2 gene expression. Moreover, polystyrene microplastics exposure resulted in reduced acetylcholinesterase activity leading to elevated NO concentration along with altered serotonin and dopamine levels and subsequently leading to down-regulated bdnf gene expression and modulated downstream apoptotic signalling, confirming the neurotoxicity potential of microplastics causing neuronal dysfunction. This study also compared the binding affinities between styrene and human proteins (Bdnf, p53 and Bcl-2) using bioinformatics methods, and docking results showed negative binding energy resulting in high binding affinities of Bcl-2 then p53 and Bdnf with styrene.
... Then, a foam material was developed from the conversion of PS into expanded polystyrene (EPS) the trademark "foamed polystyrene" or "EPS" can be replaced with "Styrofoam," because the name "Styrofoam" has become synonymous with all rigid foam products (Chandra et al., 2016). Styrofoam is a multifunctional material synthesized by the polymerization reaction of styrene (Chandra et al., 2016), (Farrelly & Shaw, 2017). The advantages of styrofoam such as being lightweight, water resistant, and inexpensive. ...
... Thus, they accumulated in landfills and waters, such as rivers or oceans, as litter. Moreover, the main precursors of Styrofoam are benzene and styrene, which have been classified as carcinogens, and these residues can present health risks for producers and consumers of Styrofoam (Chandra et al., 2016), (Farrelly & Shaw, 2017). Biofoam or bio-degradable foam is a material produced by natural sources, such as starch (Sumardiono et al., 2021), cellulose (Adiyar et al., 2019), protein (Wu, 2017), and mycelium-based (Bruscato et al., 2019), (Islam et al., 2018), to substitute the use of Styrofoam. ...
Biofoam, a biodegradable foam, was developed with the purpose of replacing the use of Styrofoam, particularly as food containers. Fungal mycelia as well as polysaccharides and proteins can be used to create foam. The type of fungi, substrate composition, and incubation condition all have an impact on the fabrication of mycelia-based biofoam. Hence, in this research, the fabrication, and properties evaluation of Rhizopus oligosporus mycelia-based biofoam were carried out using various lignocellulosic (sugarcane trash (SCT), pineapple leaves (PL), and a mix of both with the inoculum concentration (20%, 25%, and 30%)). The substrate also included soybean starch, CaCO3, and water (in a ratio of 5:2:15 %w/w of the lignocellulosic used). The results showed that the inoculum required for optimum mycelium growth on the SCT, PL, and mix substrates was 25%, 25%, and 30%, respectively. Biofoams (S2, P2, and SP3) have low moisture content and water absorption but high density and biodegradability compared with other biofoams. The biofoams obtained from this study also had a higher MOE and lower MOR than Styrofoam as the control.
... These measures have undoubtedly made it easier to reduce the amount of production; however, they do not solve the problem since, according to the data previously presented, except in Asia, the consumption of products destined for food packaging represents little more than 30% of total consumption, leaving pending the integral management of the remaining 70% [17,18]. In 1986, the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) reported that the polystyrene manufacturing process was the fifth most significant source of hazardous waste, linking it to adverse health effects in humans, and in 2014 it was classified as a potential carcinogen [19,20]. Faced with this problem, the present research project was justified by proposing a new alternative in green chemistry to reduce the use of additives and thus generate a sustainable biomaterial [21][22][23]. ...
Biodiversity in ecosystems is threatened by plastic waste, a significant pollution problem. The research aims to use plastic, Pleorotus ostreatus mycelium, and sugarcane bagasse to develop an eco-friendly biomaterial. The preparation consisted of three phases: (1) Treatment of the underlying layer, (2) inoculation of the fungus (three different concentrations: 15%, M1; 20%, M2; and 25%, M3), and (3) dehydration of the biomaterial. The physical characterization results (density, water absorption, and texture) showed that the average density varies between 127.86 and 131.19 kg/m3; also, the M1 sample had a high percentage of water absorption (23.55%), while M2 obtained lower percentages (11.79%). In the bending test, samples M2 and M3 showed higher structural resistance with stress values of 0.682 and 0.68 MPa, respectively. Based on the results, the produced biomaterials may serve as an alternative to expanded polystyrene (EPS). Due to their moldable characteristics, they can be used in non-structural construction, packaging, and various architectural applications. The research provided promising results; however, additional parameters must be evaluated to be able to commercialize them.
