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Microplastics (MPs) distributions have been increasingly reported in the terrestrial areas worldwide, but little information is available for ASEAN regions. In this study, 68 sediment samples of drainage channels, lakes, rivers and beaches from Myanmar were collected between 2014 and 2018, and analyzed to investigate the status of MPs concentration and prevalence. The high concentrations of MPs in sediments were found in urban cities called Yangon (13,855 pieces/kg dry weight), Mandalay (11,946 pieces/kg), and Pathein (12,583 pieces/kg), which were two orders of magnitude greater than the MPs concentrations in sediments collected in rural towns called Wundwin. These results suggested that the difference in high population densities and high municipal solid waste generation rates are related to the MPs contamination in sediments. Polyethylene, polypropylene and polyethylene terephthalate with fragments, lines/fibers and films/sheets were major polymers and shape in the sediment samples analyzed from Myanmar. To our knowledge, this is the first study to report the distribution of MPs in sediments from Myanmar., (© 2023. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature.)

This descriptive-predictive, cross-sectional study aimed to explore organizational commitment and to determine the predictability of years of experience, level of education, position, perceived organizational support, and work-life balance on each component of organizational commitment. The participants included 234 nurses who were randomly selected from four general hospitals in the Republic of the Union of Myanmar. The research instruments included a demographic data form, the Organizational Commitment Scale, the Survey of Perceived Organizational Support, and the Work-Life Balance Scale. The data were analyzed using descriptive statistics and stepwise multiple regression. The results revealed that the nurses perceived the three components of organizational commitment at a moderate level. Years of experience, position, perceived organizational support, and work-life balance explained 38.0% of the total variance for affective commitment, 28.3% for continuance commitment, and 35.9% for normative commitment. The findings of this study can inform administrators and policymakers regarding the development of strategies to improve organizational commitment among nurses based on four predictors., (© 2022 John Wiley & Sons Australia, Ltd.)

In this study, we determined the concentrations of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) in road dust from Myanmar, Japan, Taiwan, and Vietnam. PAHs were detected in urban and rural areas of Myanmar at mean concentrations of 630 ng/g dry weight and 200 ng/g dry weight, respectively. PAHs were also detected in road dust from Vietnam (mean 1700 ng/g) and Taiwan (2400 ng/g). PAH diagnostic ratios suggested that fossil fuel vehicular exhaust and biomass combustion are major sources of PAHs in road dust in Myanmar. Road dust samples from Japan, Taiwan, and Vietnam had similar PAH diagnostic ratios, implying that PAH sources are similar. We assessed the human health risks posed by PAHs in road dust using carcinogenic equivalents (CEQs) and incremental lifetime cancer risk (ILCR). Mean CEQs were decreased in the order Taiwan (173 ng/g) > Vietnam (162 ng/g for Hanoi) > Myanmar (42 and 31 ng/g for Yangon and Pathein, respectively) > Japan (30 ng/g for Kumamoto). Benz[a]pyrene, fluoranthene, and benzo[b]fluoranthene, the predominant PAHs, contributed > 70% of total CEQs. High ILCR values were found for Taiwan (5.9 × 10 -4 and 9.9 × 10 -4 for children and adults, respectively) and Vietnam (6.5 × 10 -4 and 9.2 × 10 -4 for children and adults, respectively, in Hanoi), indicating that PAHs in road dust pose cancer risks to the inhabitants of Taiwan and Hanoi. To our knowledge, this is the first report to identify PAH pollution in the environment and to evaluate the human health risks of these PAHs in Myanmar.