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Understanding the plastics cycle to minimize exposure

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Contamination of the environment with plastics is one of the most widespread and long-lasting human influences on our planet. There is an urgent need to comprehensively evaluate the environmental plastics cycle and advance understanding of key transport and fate mechanisms to minimize human exposure to plastics pollution.

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Fig. 1: Overview of the plastics cycle.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Minderoo Centre — Plastics and Human Health, Queensland Alliance for Environmental Health Sciences (QAEHS), University of Queensland, Woolloongabba, Queensland, Australia

    Kevin V. Thomas

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  1. Kevin V. Thomas
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Correspondence to Kevin V. Thomas.

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The author declares no competing interests.

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Peer review information Nature Sustainability thanks the anonymous reviewers for their contribution to the peer review of this work.

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Thomas, K.V. Understanding the plastics cycle to minimize exposure. Nat Sustain 5, 282–284 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41893-021-00814-3

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