From a time to this part, microplastics seem to have sneaked into all areas of our life: from the lettuce we eat in the salad, even in the testicles of men. This polymer is not only found in the earth where vegetables are grown, in the oceans where the fish or in the springs are where the water we drink comes out. And the idea that all these particles are in the environment that we breathe more and more consolidates.
Already in the past ‘Nature’ magazine published the first evidences that showed that microplastics are found in the air around us. But now a recent French study published in the magazine ‘Plos One’ gives us more details about the concentration of these polymers that we are constantly breathing, and how the car is one of the greatest foci we face. The good news is that this gives rise to solutions to reduce its presence.
The conclusion of this new study are very direct, but also alarming: we are inhaling a drastically greater microplastics than we believed. The previous estimates have fallen short, very short. The new figure suggests that an average adult inhales about 68,000 microplastic particles every day. One hundred times more than what was calculated so far for the range of more dangerous particles.
An invisible enemy that attacks our lungs
The problem of measurements that were made so far was a matter of view. The most common methods in this type of detection, such as infrared spectroscopy, are effective to detect particles up to 20 micrometers. However, they are completely ‘blind’ with the smallest particles, which are known as PM_10 (less than 10 micrometers), and that are the ones that can make the lungs the most damage when the different defense mechanisms that the body has.
This new study, led by French researcher Nadiia Yakovenko, has used a much more precise technique called Raman spectroscopy, capable of ‘see’ particles of up to a micrometer, eliminating the limitation that the conventional spectrometer had. In this way, we have a new molecular zoom that has revealed that the situation of our environment is much more alarming than was thought.
Taking advantage of this new technique, the investigation was conducted in the path of knowing the place where there is a greater concentration of microplastics. In the case of an apartment, the average measure measured was 528 particles per cubic meter. But the problem was when measuring in the car, where the figure shot up to 2,238 particles per cubic meter.
Box chart showing the concentration analyzed with microplastics in cars and apartments. Seven apartments and five cars were analyzed.
In this way, the simple fact of this in the car makes us exposed to a concentration of microplastics four times higher than that we expose ourselves in our own home. And this is not due to anything other than the amount of synthetic material that we have in a car, such as plastic splashing, carpets or upholstery. All this, added to a very small space and that can be without ventilating for many hours, makes it the ideal breeding ground for the cabin to be filled with microplastics that we breathe at the time of starting to drive. Because the reality is that we do not ventilate the cabin before driving, but that we enter the car, we start and go.
The new and alarming daily account: 68,000 particles
Here comes the data that changes everything. When combining its findings with those of the history of the bibliography, the team has recalculated the exposure we face on average.
In total there are 68,000 particles small size (less than 10 micrometers) to which an adult is faced daily. These are the most worrying particles, since being so small They can reach the alveoli and cross the alveolocapilar barrier formed by pneumocytes and blood capillaries. This means that they can end in our blood.
In a lower exposure range are the particles with a larger size ranging from 10 to 300 micrometers. These being larger do not reach the alveolocapillary barrier, but are ‘trapped’ in the mucous membranes of the upper respiratory tract, although they are not harmless, since they crawl to the throat and end up in our stomach.
It has important health consequences. This constant exposure to plastic fragments is not harmless. The authors of the study remember that the inhalation of these particles can be associated with damage to lung tissue, inflammation, increased oxidative stress and also to the appearance of chronic diseases such as COPD.
But microplastics do not ‘travel’ lonely. They can transport with them different heavy or polluting metals that adhere to their surface and that once within the body can be released and alter endocrine functions such as endocrine disruptors or increase the risk of other diseases.
In this way, this new study demonstrates that there is still much to investigate microplastics and redipline as a complex a public health problem that occurs silently and ‘invisible’.
Imágenes | FlyD Brock Wegner
In WorldOfSoftware | More than 50,000 microplastic particles per year: that is what an average citizen ingests according to the first estimate we have
