<
https://www.sciencealert.com/study-reveals-the-shocking-amount-of-plastic-we-breathe-in-every-day>
'According to a new study, humans can inhale more than 70,000 microplastic
particles each day in an indoor environment – far more than previously thought.
Worse still, most of them are small enough to penetrate deep into our lungs.
Plastic is one of the defining environmental issues of our time, clogging up
everything from our waterways to our bloodstreams. Tiny particles of the stuff
enter our bodies not just through what we eat and drink but through the very
air we breathe.
In a new study, scientists from the Université de Toulouse in France quantified
just how much plastic dust we may be inhaling every day. The team took 16
indoor air samples from their own apartments and cars, then analyzed them using
a technique called Raman spectroscopy to measure the concentration of
microplastics floating around in there.
And, it turns out, it's a lot. The median concentration for apartment air
samples were 528 microplastic particles per cubic meter, and a whopping 2,238
particles per cubic meter in cars. Of those particles, 94 percent were less
than 10 micrometers wide, which is small enough to work their way deep into
lung tissue when inhaled.
From this and other research, the team estimated that adults inhale roughly
71,000 microplastic particles from these environments every single day, with
68,000 of them being sub-10 micrometers.
"The concentration we found is 100-fold higher than previous extrapolated
estimates," the authors say.
"People spend an average of 90 percent of their time indoors, including homes,
workplaces, shops, transportation, etc., and all the while they are exposed to
microplastic pollution through inhalation without even thinking about it."'
Via Susan ****
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
