Scientists Trace Microplastic Pollution Almost Everywhere, It's Become Airborne

Scientists are declaring that almost no surface is free of plastic pollution. An estimate of over 1000 metric tons of microplastic particles, smaller than 5mm in length, falls within southern and central-western protected areas in the United States.

Microplastics usually fragments from larger plastics, reach isolated, wilderness areas by traveling via wind and rain. The team has discovered that synthetic microfibers, used to manufacture clothing, comprise the majority of plastic pollution.

Particles eventually find their way from waste piles and landfills to the Earth's soil, water systems, and atmosphere since they are not biodegradable. The study gathered information from a survey of 11 remote sites and national parks, including the Grand Canyon, the Great Basin, and Joshua Tree.

Janice Brahney, a professor of Watershed Sciences at Utah State University, explains 'plastic spiraling,' the process of microplastics being carried through natural systems over a long period. 'Plastics could be deposited, readmitted to the atmosphere, transported for some time, deposited and may be picked up again," Brahney said. "And who knows how many times and who knows how far they've traveled?"

Brahney and the team used high-resolution spatial and temporal data to test if plastic deposits 'in wet versus dry conditions have distinct atmospheric life histories.' They found that wet microplastics were most likely disturbed by storms then swept up into the atmosphere, coming from larger urban areas. On the other hand, dry microplastics traveled in the same way as dust, going long distances, and even crossing continents.

Pollution Rates

They placed filters in various field sites to conduct a visual count of microplastic beads, fibers, and fragments carried via wind and rain. Measurements amounted to an average rate of 132 plastics per square meter daily which amounts to more than 1000 metric tons of plastic deposition to western U.S. protected lands annually. At current rates, the team projected that up to 11 billion metric tons of microplastic pollution will be dispersed in the environment by 2025.

"We were shocked at the estimated deposition rates and kept trying to figure out where our calculations went wrong," Brahney said. "We then confirmed through 32 different particle scans that roughly 4% of the atmospheric particles analyzed from these remote locations were synthetic polymers."

Microplacstics in Air: Are We Breathing It In?

Adding the human aspect of harmful microplastic pollution, a study in 2019 involving a breathing thermal manikin, concluded that the average person inhaled up to 11 microplastic per hour.

Brahney and her team are raising awareness of the need to reduce plastic pollution as particles can cause asthma and cancer as it penetrates lung tissue.

Learning about plastic not degrading and decomposing also affects the loss of plant life as it poisons natural soil. The new research is just initial data on how microplastics transport throughout ecosystems.

'This ubiquity of microplastics in the atmosphere and the subsequent deposition to remote terrestrial and aquatic environments raise widespread ecological and societal concerns,' Brahney said. 'Identifying the key mechanisms of plastic emission to the atmosphere is a first step in developing global-scale solutions.'