Excerpt:
A new study from Indian megacities identifies inhalable microplastics as an emerging air pollutant. These micron-sized particles not only bypass barriers in the nose to reach the lungs but also carry pathogens that could find a host in human body and multiply…
An average resident of an Indian city can inhale nearly three grams of plastics over their lifetime, almost the weight of a small plastic bottle, according to a new study that looked at an emerging airborne pollutant – inhalable microplastics (iMPs) – and their implications for human health.
Inhalable microplastics are a subset of airborne microplastics. While airborne microplastics are typically less than 5 mm in size, inhalable microplastics are 500 times smaller, at less than 10 microns in size, a size that can penetrate the nasal cavity and enter the lungs, says the study in the journal Environment International.
Typically, fine particles from dust, smoke, and fuel, are categorised either as PM2.5 or PM10, which are particles considered responsible for air pollution. But microplastics now make up as much as 5% of these particulate pollutants in India’s cities, says the study conducted by the Indian Institute of Science Education and Research (IISER) Kolkata in collaboration with the All India Institute of Medical Sciences, Kalyani, the Institute of Mathematical Sciences, Chennai and Homi Bhabha National Institute, Mumbai.
“This research points to the anthropogenic plastic dust, caused by weathering of clothes and tyres – products that are a part of urban life. Microplastics are not yet included in air quality standards like PM2.5 and PM10, but their persistence and toxicity mean they should be. We urge policymakers to officially recognise inhalable microplastics as a new air pollutant,” said Abhishek Biswas, researcher at the Environmental Nanoscience Laboratory at IISER, Kolkata who played a lead role in the study.
“It is an important finding that microplastics are a significant part of air pollution. It is great seeing more studies on microplastics in the atmosphere, in particular from large cities with a lot of air pollution and in a context of low/middle income countries for which we often lack such data,” said Martin Wagner an ecotoxicologist at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology and a member of the Scientific Coalition for an effective plastic treaty, a body advocating for science based decision making at the United Nation’s global plastic treaty negotiations…
