The pieces of plastic scattered in the environment are mainly crushed by mechanical forces and UV radiation, and over time they turn into micro (<5 mm) and even smaller, nano (<100 nm) plastic particles. They are dispersed in the air, water and soil and enter the food chain by inhalation and ingestion, penetrating cells within all parts of the body.

In the main chapters of the book, we present the most important properties of microplastics, discuss their occurrence in different types of water (surface water, drinking water – bottled or tap water; and non-drinking water – industrial waters and wastewater), describe the health effects of micro/nanoplastics, their legal regulation (EU and Hungarian), detection options, analytical methods and, finally, water production technologies free of micropollutants and microplastics in the case of different raw waters.