Scientists say atmosphere carrying microplastics to the Arctic
Microplastics are entering the atmosphere and being carried vast distances to some of the remotest places on the planet, scientists said.
Researchers from Germany and Switzerland said in a study published Wednesday that they found evidence of “high concentrations” of microplastics are falling from the sky with snow in the Arctic and Bavarian and Swiss Alps.
“It’s readily apparent that the majority of the microplastic in the snow comes from the air,” said co-author Melanie Bergmann.
Another co-author, Gunnar Gerdts, said that snow is efficient in “washing” microplastics out of the air.
The finding that microscopic plastic are entering the air raises questions about whether humans and wildlife are inhaling the particles.
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Microplastics: Our daily companions
Plastic in your mouth
Microplastics are defined as smaller than 5 milimeters in diameter. But these tiny particles accumulate in the sea, can enter the food chain, and are even found in the air. Personal care products containing microplastics, such as toothpaste, represent one of the most common intentional uses of microplastics in our daily lives.
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Microplastics: Our daily companions
Cleaning your skin with plastic
Some cosmetic products can contain as much plastic added as the amount of plastic in which they are packaged, experts indicate. Exfoliating daily washes very often use of microplastics, often termed “micro-beads,” which then get flushed into the household wastewater stream.
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Microplastics: Our daily companions
Mmm, plastic
Via wastewater, microplastics reach the oceans, where they move enter the food chain through feeding zooplankton. In 2017, researchers found that 25 percent of marine fish tested in markets in Indonesia and California had plastic and textile fibers in their guts. Research is still lacking as to whether consuming microplastics through fish harms humans.
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Microplastics: Our daily companions
Plastic condiment
Several studies published in 2017 showed that microplastics have also been found in sea salt from the United States, Europe and China. It’s not surprising, considering how plastic debris represent between 60 to 80 percent of the total marine waste, and that up to 12 million tons of plastic waste ends up in the ocean every year.
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Microplastics: Our daily companions
No way to escape
Beside microplastics in seafood like fish, shrimp and mussels, scientists point to other foods, such as honey. In the recently adopted European Union plastics strategy, honey was mentioned as one of the food products containing microplastics — to motivate a push toward a ban.
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Microplastics: Our daily companions
Wearing plastics
Aside from micro-beads in hygiene products, synthetic textiles also release a vast amount of tiny plastic fibers into wastewater. Researchers found that a typical 6-kilogram (13-pound) washing load of acrylic-fabric items (like fluffy blankets) generates more than 700,000 individual fibers. Synthetic fabrics account for around a third of ocean microplastics.
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Microplastics: Our daily companions
Dirty wheels
Vehicles tires are also a main source releasing microplastics into the environment. Tires are made of synthetic polymers mixed with rubber, which grinds down when used. This generates microplastics that are either blown around by the wind or washed away by rain. Norwegian and Swedish researchers agree that a large proporation of particles found in the sea come from car tires.
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Microplastics: Our daily companions
Open the tap, and … microplastics
Microplastics have also been found in tap water. In an analysis of tap water samples from countries around the world, more than 80 percent were contaminated with some amount of plastic fibers. If synthetic fibers are in tap water, they are also likely to be in a number of other basic foodstuffs, like bread.
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Microplastics: Our daily companions
No, not my beer!
And yes, if tap water contains microplastics, beer could very well also be contaminated. A 2014 study found plastic particles in a total of 24 German beers – but variability in the results was high, and further research would needed for verification, the German Environment Agency has pointed out. In any case, cheers for now.
What are microplastics?
Microplastics are defined as particles of plastic less than 5mm in size. Tens of millions of tons of plastic litter has entered rivers and oceans worldwide, where it is then broken down into smaller and smaller pieces by waves and UV radiation.
Microplastics can be found in seawater, marine sediment and in marine organisms that digest it.
Read more: Here, there, and in the toilet? Microplastics now found in our poop
What did the study find?
Researchers found 14,400 particles per liter in the Arctic. The highest concentration — 154,000 particles per liter — was found near a rural road in Bavaria.
The type of plastic varied by sample location. Most of the plastic was composed of varnish, rubber, polyethylene, and polyamide.
Read more: Plastic fibers pervasive in tap water worldwide, new study shows
How is the plastic reaching remote areas?
Researchers suggested that microplastics are sucked into the atmosphere and carried by winds.
This hypothesis is based on other studies that have shown grains of pollen — which are about the size of some plastic particles — are carried from middle latitudes to the Arctic. Similar studies have showed dust from the Sahara desert can travel more than 3,500 kilometers (1,550 miles) through the atmosphere.
Read more: Emissions and microplastics: How food waste hurts the environment
How was the study conducted?
Previous studies have found microplastics in the sky in the French Pyrenees, Tehran and near urban centers in France and China.
However, the German-Swiss study found microplastic concentrations much higher than other research.
The other studies sorted microplastic by hand under the microscope, leading to the possibility that some particles were missed.
The German-Swiss study used an infrared microscope which allowed researchers to identify the type of plastic and detect particles as small as 11 micrometers in size. This may account for discovering high particle concentrations.
The study was conducted at sites on the North Sea island of Heligoland, the Arctic, northern Germany and the Bavarian and Swiss Alps.
Article source: https://www.dw.com/en/scientists-say-atmosphere-carrying-microplastics-to-the-arctic/a-50028215?maca=en-rss-en-all-1573-rdf