COVID-19 personal protective equipment (PPE) contamination in coastal areas of Granada, Spain Ortega García, Francisco Calero De Hoces, Francisca Mónica Rico Castro, Nuria Martín Lara, María Ángeles Plastic pollution Beaches COVID-19 Personal protective equipment (PPE) Granada This research was funded by project “RECOMAR” (PYC20 RE 041 UGR), co-financed 80 % by the ERDF, ERDF Operational Program 2014- 2020 and the Ministry of Economic Transformation, Industry, Knowl- edge and Universities, Junta de Andalucía. European Union – European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) - “Andalusia moves with Europe”. Authors thank “Commonwealth of Municipalities of the Tropical Coast of Granada” that greatly assisted the sampling campaigns. Funding for open access charge: Universidad de Granada / CBUA. The use of disposable personal protective equipment (PPE) as a control measure to avoid transmission against COVID-19 has generated a challenge to the waste management and enhances plastic pollution in the environment. The research aims to monitor the presence of PPE waste and other plastic debris, in a time interval where the use of face mask at specific places was still mandatory, on the coastal areas of Granada (Spain) which belongs to the Mediterranean Sea. Four beaches called La Rijana, La Charca, La Rábita and Calahonda were examined during different periods. The total amount of sampled waste was 17,558 plastic units. The abundance, characteristics and distribution of PPE and other plastic debris were determined. Results showed that the observed amount of total plastic debris were between 2.531·10−2 and 24.487·10−2 units per square meter, and up to 0.136·10−2 for PPE debris, where face masks represented the 92.22 % of the total PPE debris, being these results comparable to previous studies in other coastal areas in the world. On the other hand, total plastic debris densities were in the range from 2.457·10−2 to 92.219·10−2 g/m2 and densities were up to 0.732·10−2 for PPE debris. PPE debris supposed 0.79 % of the weight of total waste and the 0.51 % of total items. Concerning non-PPE plastic waste: cigarettes filters, food containers and styrofoam were the most abundant items (42.95, 10.19 and 16.37 % of total items, respectively). During vacation periods, total plastic debris amount increased 92.19 % compared to non-vacation periods. Regarding type of beaches, the presence of plastic debris was significantly higher on touristic/recreational than in fishing beaches. Data showed no significant differences between accessible and no-accessible beaches, but between periods with restrictive policy about mask face use and periods with non-restrictive policy data suggest significant differences between densities (g/m2) for PPE litter. The amount of PPEs debris is also correlated with the number of cigarettes filters (Person's r = 0.650), food containers (r = 0.782) and other debris (r = 0.63). Finally, although interesting results were provided in this study, further research is required to better understand the consequences of this type of pollution and to provide viable solutions to this problem. 2023-05-24T06:58:55Z 2023-05-24T06:58:55Z 2023-06 info:eu-repo/semantics/article F. Ortega et al. COVID-19 personal protective equipment (PPE) contamination in coastal areas of Granada, Spain. Marine Pollution Bulletin 191 (2023) 114908 [https://doi.org/10.1016/j.marpolbul.2023.114908] https://hdl.handle.net/10481/81770 10.1016/j.marpolbul.2023.114908 eng http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 Internacional Elsevier