Microplastic pollution is raining down on city dwellers, with research revealing that London has the highest levels yet recorded.
The health effects of breathing or consuming the tiny plastic particles are unknown, and experts have said that urgent research is needed to assess the risks.
Only four cities have been assessed to date, but all had microplastic pollution in the air. Scientists believe that every city would be contaminated, as sources of microplastics such as clothing and packaging are found everywhere.
Research has shown that the whole planet appears to be contaminated with microplastic pollution.
Scientists have found the particles everywhere they look, from Arctic snow and mountain soils to many rivers and the deepest oceans.
Other research has indicated that particles can be blown across the world.
The level of microplastics discovered in the London air surprised scientists.
“We found a high abundance of microplastics, much higher than what has previously been reported,” said Stephanie Wright, a scientist at King’s College London who led the research. “But any city around the world is going to be somewhat similar.”
“I find it of concern — that is why I am working on it,” she said. “The biggest concern is we don’t really know much at all. I want to find out if it is safe or not.”
The research, published in the journal Environment International, collected microplastics falling onto the roof of a nine-story building in central London. This ensured that only microplastics from the atmosphere were collected.
They were found in all eight samples, with deposition rates ranging from 575 to 1,008 pieces per square meter per day, and 15 different plastics were identified.
Most microplastics were fibers made of acrylic, most likely from clothing.
Just 8 percent of the microplastics were particles, and these were mostly polystyrene and polyethylene, both commonly used in food packaging.
The rate of microplastic deposition measured in London is 20 times greater than in Dongguan, China; seven times greater than in Paris; and nearly three times higher than in Hamburg, Germany.
The researchers do not know the reason for the variation, but differences in experimental methods are likely to be partly responsible.
The microplastic particles in London were between 0.02mm and 0.5mm in diameter. These are large enough to be deposited in airways when inhaled and would be swallowed in saliva.
Smaller particles that can get into the lungs and bloodstream represent the greatest potential health hazard. These were seen in the samples, but their composition could not be identified with current technology.
The serious health damage caused by pollution emitted by traffic and industry is well known.
A comprehensive global review earlier this year concluded that air pollution might be damaging every organ and virtually every cell in the human body.
However, the potential health effects of inhaling plastic particles from the air, or consuming them via food and water, are unknown.
People eat at least 50,000 microplastic particles per year, one study found.
Plastics can carry toxic chemicals and harbor harmful microbes, and the limited research done to date has shown harm to some marine creatures.
The only assessment of microplastics in human lungs, published in 1998, found that inhaled fibers were present in cancerous lung specimens.
“These studies showing just how much plastic is in the air are a wake-up call,” said Steve Allen, of the EcoLab research institute near Toulouse, France, whose own work has shown microplastic air pollution in remote mountain areas.
“The [London research] is a very well-done study showing incredibly high numbers of airborne microplastics,” he said.
“Currently, we have very little knowledge on what effect this airborne pollution will have on humans,” he said. “But with what we do know, it is pretty scary to think we are breathing it in. We need urgent research.”
Universite Paris-Est’s Johnny Gasperi said that the research shows a widespread contamination of the air by microplastics.
The London study showed that microplastic deposition did not depend on the strength or direction of the wind, suggesting that the city itself was the most likely source, he said.
Melanie Bergmann, of the Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research in Germany, said that more research on the potential health effects of microplastic pollution was important.
“We do not currently know what proportion of inhaled microplastics actually penetrates the deep lung,” she said.
Microplastics are also found in drinking water and in August an assessment by the WHO found no evidence to date of harm, but said that more research was needed.
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