Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2020 Mar:136:105411.
doi: 10.1016/j.envint.2019.105411. Epub 2019 Dec 27.

Atmospheric microplastic deposition in an urban environment and an evaluation of transport

S L Wright  1 , J Ulke  2 , A Font  3 , K L A Chan  4 , F J Kelly  3
Affiliations

Atmospheric microplastic deposition in an urban environment and an evaluation of transport

S L Wright et al. Environ Int. 2020 Mar.

Abstract

Microplastics are a global environmental issue contaminating aquatic and terrestrial environments. They have been reported in atmospheric deposition, and indoor and outdoor air, raising concern for public health due to the potential for exposure. Moreover, the atmosphere presents a new vehicle for microplastics to enter the wider environment, yet our knowledge of the quantities, characteristics and pathways of airborne microplastics is sparse. Here we show microplastics in atmospheric deposition in a major population centre, central London. Microplastics were found in all samples, with deposition rates ranging from 575 to 1008 microplastics/m2/d. They were found in various shapes, of which fibrous microplastics accounted for the great majority (92%). Across all samples, 15 different petrochemical-based polymers were identified. Bivariate polar plots indicated dependency on wind, with different source areas for fibrous and non-fibrous airborne microplastics. This is the first evidence of airborne microplastics in London and confirms the need to include airborne pathways when consolidating microplastic impacts on the wider environment and human health.

Keywords: Air pollution; Atmospheric deposition; Microplastics; Urban.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

Declaration of Competing Interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Time-series of deposition rates (n/m2/d) for (A) fibrous, (B) non-fibrous and (C) total microplastics.
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
The profile of fibres and microplastics in total atmospheric deposition. (A) the size distribution of fibrous particle diameters (µm) based on 10% of fibres randomly intercepted on each sample filter; (B) the size distribution of fibrous particle lengths (µm) based on 10% of fibres randomly intercepted on each sample filter; (C) the size distribution of non-fibrous microplastic maximum dimensions (µm); (D) the proportional distribution of fibre materials; and (E) the proportional distribution of non-fibrous microplastic morphologies. NI = non-identifiable; R. Cellulose = regenerated cellulose.
Fig. 3
Fig. 3
The composition of microplastics in total atmospheric deposition. (A) The proportional distribution of the identified petro-chemical-based fibrous microplastics; (B) the proportional distribution of the identified petro-chemical-based non-fibrous microplastics. PAN = polyacrylonitrile; PES = polyester, PA = polyamide; PP = polypropylene; PVC = polyvinylchloride; PE = polyethylene; PET = polyethylene terephthalate; PS = polystyrene; PUR = polyurethane; Pol. Petr. Res = polymerised petroleum resin.
Fig. 4
Fig. 4
Bivariate polar plots of atmospheric microplastic deposition in central London for (A) non-fibrous, (B) fibrous and (C) total microplastics. The colour scales show microplastic deposition rate (n/m2/d); radial scales show wind speed (m/s), which increases from the centre of the plot radially out-wards (2 m s−1 increments).
See this image and copyright information in PMC

Similar articles

See all similar articles

Cited by

See all "Cited by" articles

References

    1. Andrady A.L. The plastic in microplastics: A review. Mar. Pollut. Bull. 2017;119:12–22. - PubMed
    1. Allen S., Allen D., Phoenix V.R., Le Roux G., Durantez Jimenez P., Simonneau A. Atmospheric transport and deposition of microplastics in a remote mountain catchment. Nat. Geosci. 2019;12:339–344.
    1. Barlow J.F., Dunbar T.M., Nemitz E.G., Wood C.R., Gallagher M.W., Davies F. Boundary layer dynamics over London, UK, as observed using Doppler lidar during REPARTEE-II. Atmos. Chem. Phys. 2011;11:2111–2125.
    1. Bergmann M., Mutzel S., Primpke S., Tekman M.B., Trachsel J., Gerdts G. White and wonderful? Microplastics prevail in snow from the Alps to the Arctic. Sci. Adv. 2019;5(8):eaax1157. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Cai L., Wang J., Peng J., Tan Z., Zhan Z., Tan X. Characteristic of microplastics in the atmospheric fallout from Dongguan city, China: preliminary research and first evidence. Environ. Sci. Pollut. Res. 2017;24:24928–24935. - PubMed

Publication types

LinkOut - more resources