USU study explores sources of plastic emitted into the air

USU Assistant Professor Janice Brahney has discovered that "microplastics," besides being known to accumulate in wastewaters, rivers, and ultimately the worlds' oceans, also accumulate in the atmosphere. (Photo credit: Dennis Hinkamp)

LOGAN – New Utah State University research indicates the equivalent of 120-to-130 million plastic water bottles fall every year on the U.S., in the form of microscopic particles.

Microscope image of microplastics in atmospheric particulate samples. 500 pm. (Photo credit: Janice Brahney, Utah State University)

The study, entitled Plastic Rain In Protected Areas of the United States, was published at the end of last week in the peer-reviewed journal Science.

Lead researcher Janice Brahney said she was shocked that about four percent of the material her team scanned was micro plastics, especially since their testing was done in 11 national parks.

“In an attempt to try to confirm what we were counting, we ran particle scans to try and get a better handle on what the percentage of our particles were polymers and we were fully anticipating fractions of a percent,” Brahney explained. “But it started coming back between two and six percent and that was just so shocking to us.”

The world produced 348 million metric tons of plastic in 2017 and global production shows no sign of slowing down. Pictured here, Rocky Mountain National Park, which had the greatest amount microplastics among the national parks and wilderness areas in the study.

Dr. Brahney said the original intent of the research was to study nutrient deposition in remote locations, but finding such high percentages of micro plastics in the air in national parks forced a change in direction.

“That was one of our take homes is that if it is being transported  to these incredibly remote locations, really far away from humans, it’s probably everywhere. We still don’t fully understand the atmospheric limb of the plastics cycle. There’s a lot more work that can be done to understand where the major sources are.”

Other related studies have shown people eat or breathe more than 50,000 tiny plastic particles every year.

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