Table 1.
Occurrence and density of disposable face masks during COVID-19 pandemic in urbanised and natural environments.
| Location | Sampling sites | Number of items | Observations | Reference |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Lima; Peru | 11 beaches | 138 items (7.44 × 10−4 items/m2), 66.4% representing disposable masks (surgical, KN95) |
Recreational beaches presented the highest number of items (73%), followed by surfing (24.6%), fishing and inaccessible beaches (< 1%). | De-la-Torre et al., 2021 |
| Soko island; Japan | 100 m beach | 70 disposable masks (7 × 10−3 items/m2) | Stokes, 2020 | |
| Kwale, Kilifi, Mombasa; Kenya | Beaches (sediments and water), and streets | Streets: 0.01 item/m Beaches: 0.1 items/m2 |
Mombasa presented a higher number of masks in the streets; Kwale beaches presented more items than Kilifi. | Okuku et al., 2021 |
| Jacarta bay; Indonesia | Cilincing and Marunda river mouths | 4500–5000 items (~254.7–246 items/day), 5.36–4.92% representing face masks | COVID-19 waste increased 5% the debris found in riverine sediments. | Cordova et al., 2021 |
| Toronto; Canada | Parking lots, hospitals, residential areas |
1306 items, 31% representing face masks. Parking lots and hospitals (1.60–1.33 × 10−3/m2) Residential areas (2.9–2.7 × 10−4 /m2) |
Parking lots and hospitals had higher numbers of face masks. | Ammendolia et al., 2021 |
| Cox's Bazar; Bangladesh | One beach (13 sampling sites; 12 weeks) | 6.29 × 10−4 /m2, 97.9% representing face masks | Rakib et al., 2021 | |
| Bushehr, Iran | Sandy beaches (S1, S4, S7-S9) Rocky beaches (S3, S5, S6) |
1578 face masks and 804 gloves were found over a cumulative area of 43,577 m2 during 40 days | S4, S5, S7 (most populated beaches) were the most polluted sites | Akhbarizadeh et al., 2021 |