While we live in the Plastics Age, and it may no longer be a huge surprise that we are constantly exposed to microplastics, a new study claims that we might be inhaling 100 times more microplastics in our own homes and cars than scientists had previously estimated. To be more specific, human beings might be inhaling around 68,000 microplastic particles that are not visible to the naked eye inside their homes and cars.
Lead author Nadiia Yakovenko and team from the Université de Toulouse in France had collected 16 air samples from their apartments and cars. The researchers then measured the concentrations of microplastics present in each air sample, as well as the size of the microplastics. They particularly focused on microplastics that are less than 10 micrometers and more likely to penetrate deep into lung tissues compared to fine particulate matter that is bigger than 10 micrometers or visible to the naked eye. Studies have found that inhaled particles larger than 10 µm are more likely to get collected in the upper respiratory tract and automatically get cleared out of your airways. However, your respiratory system cannot filter out fine particulate matter smaller than 10 micrometers, and so, it can penetrate deeper into the lungs. Microplastics smaller than 10 micrometers are of particular concern because they could release toxic additives into your cardiovascular system along with other environmental pollutants that it might have absorbed while floating around in the air.
Multiple studies have shown that microplastics could potentially disrupt your body’s normal endocrine functions and might even increase the risk of various diseases like cancer.
“Microplastic is a ubiquitous pollutant resulting from the global extensive human use of plastic materials since 1950 and the mismanagement of plastic waste. The term “microplastic” refers to plastic particles between 1 µm and 5mm in size that come in a variety of shapes and polymer compositions,” the authors explained in their study that was published in PLoS One on July 30. “Human inhalation of fine particulate microplastic 1–10 µm that penetrate deep lung tissue may contribute to causing lung tissue damage, inflammation, and associated diseases.”
“Over the past decade, microplastics have been detected in outdoor atmospheric aerosols and deposition, in various parts of the world, from urban and highly industrialized areas to remote mountainous regions, the marine boundary layer, and indoor environments. The ubiquitous presence of microplastics in the atmosphere raises many concerns about whether, and to what extent, we are inhaling microplastics from outdoor and indoor air, with the latter likely playing the most significant role in human exposure to microplastics through inhalation,” they added. “Recent studies have shown that the concentration of indoor suspended MPs is eight times higher than outdoors, and the concentration of indoor deposited microplastic dust is 30 times higher than outdoors. Given that people in developed nations spend approximately 90% of their time indoors, including 5% in cars, the potential for inhalation exposure to MPs in indoor environments is significantly higher and warrants attention.”
