MICROPLASTICS AND ITS POTENTIAL HEALTH RISK:"A SUBJECT FIELD REVIEW

N the last decade, the issue of the impact of microplastics on the environment has become a particularly important topic for study, however, little is known about the impact on the health of mammals and humans. This review was written with the aim to study the effect of microplastics on the mammalian organism and systematise the experimental information, which is already available. Besides, it is reasonable to indicate the most common material polymer from which microplastic particles are formed during mechanical decomposition. To explore this area and expand the field of knowledge, a bibliometric analysis methodology was used and qualitative subject field literature review was conducted in Scopus. Moreover, the VOSviewer programme was utilised to visualise current trends in research areas. A total of 1,130 papers were identified and 32 articles selected and included in the review. The study of selected literature sources resulted in three analytic themes being identified: organs most susceptible to microplastic damage, the most common polymer, and toxins adsorption by microplastics. However, very few articles explicitly provided with information on current situation related to the negative impact of MPs on mammalian and human organisms and the review identified a lack of experimental data and а lack of research on the effect of a certain polymer on the body, since in some articles an inseparable mixture of microparticles was considered. This review contains a summary of experimental data obtained by scientists and may be of interest to both researchers, who are willing to expand the field of knowledge of this problem, and for unskilled in science readers, to broaden their horizons and obtain information on problem of the harmful impact of microplastics on living beings.