Microplastics are currently considered an emerging problem. That are mainly associated with the excessive use and poor disposal of plastic waste, a problem that has worsened worldwide in recent decades. Studies on the presence of microplastics are limited due to the lack of knowledge on their behaviour and incidence in ecosystems, especially in the atmosphere, and on their consequences on human health. We were conducted a study in a coastal urban area of the city of Lima-Peru, with the main of quantifying the presence of atmospheric microplastics and identifying their morphological characteristics such as shape, size and colour. The result obtained was in the presence of 1598 microplastic particles (in 30 days of monitoring), 68% were fragment type, 22% fiber type and 10% sphere type. The predominant colours were blue and green, and the average size found ranged from 2.495-216 μm. Meteo...

Background: Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) originated in the People’s Republic of China in December 2019. Thereafter, a global logarithmic expansion of cases occurred. Some countries have a higher rate of infections despite the early implementation of quarantine. Air pollution might be related to high susceptibility to the virus and associated case fatality rates (deaths/cases*100). Lima, Peru, has the second highest incidence of COVID-19 in Latin America and also has one the highest levels of air pollution in the region. Methods: This study investigated the association of levels of PM2.5 exposure in previous years (2010–2016) in 24 districts of Lima with cases, deaths and case fatality rates for COVID-19. Multiple linear regression was used to evaluate this association controlled by age, sex, population density and number of food markets per district. The study period was from ...

Until June 12, 2020, there were 6,308 deaths and 220,749 SARS-CoV-2 positive cases in Peru. In Lima, the total number of COVID-19 deaths in all metropolitan areas was 2,382. The case-fatality rate at the national level was 2.58% and 1.93% in Lima. Higher PM2.5 levels are associated with higher number of cases and deaths of COVID-19. The case-fatality rate (Deaths/cases*100) did not increase with the increase in PM2.5 levels. A higher number of food markets was associated with higher incidence and mortality of COVID-19 (p < 0.01 for both); these associations persisted when cases (r = 0.49; p < 0.01) and deaths (r = 0.58; p < 0.01) were adjusted by the population density. The association of PM2.5 with cases of COVID-19 was maintained after controlling analysis by age, sex and number of food markers.