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Tier 2
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Original research — experimental, observational, or case-control study. Direct primary evidence.
Detection Methods
Environmental Sources
Nanoplastics
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Using a citizen science approach to assess nanoplastics pollution in remote high-altitude glaciers
2024
Score: 35
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0–100 AI score estimating relevance to the microplastics field. Papers below 30 are filtered from public browse.
Nikolaos Evangeliou,
Dušan Materić
Dušan Materić
Nikolaos Evangeliou,
Dušan Materić
Dušan Materić
Nikolaos Evangeliou,
Nikolaos Evangeliou,
Nikolaos Evangeliou,
Dušan Materić
Dušan Materić
Nikolaos Evangeliou,
Dušan Materić
Dušan Materić
Dušan Materić
Leonie Jurkschat,
Leonie Jurkschat,
Leonie Jurkschat,
Dušan Materić
Dušan Materić
Dušan Materić
Dušan Materić
Dušan Materić
Dušan Materić
Dušan Materić
Leonie Jurkschat,
Leonie Jurkschat,
Leonie Jurkschat,
Nikolaos Evangeliou,
A. Gill,
Dušan Materić
Nikolaos Evangeliou,
Dušan Materić
Rupert Holzinger,
Rupert Holzinger,
Dušan Materić
Dušan Materić
Dušan Materić
Dušan Materić
Dušan Materić
Dušan Materić
Dušan Materić
Nikolaos Evangeliou,
Dušan Materić
A. Gill,
A. Gill,
A. Gill,
Nikolaos Evangeliou,
Sabine Eckhardt,
Sabine Eckhardt,
Nikolaos Evangeliou,
A. Gill,
A. Gill,
Dušan Materić
Dušan Materić
Sabine Eckhardt,
Sabine Eckhardt,
Sabine Eckhardt,
Nikolaos Evangeliou,
Nikolaos Evangeliou,
Nikolaos Evangeliou,
Nikolaos Evangeliou,
Sabine Eckhardt,
Robin Milner,
Robin Milner,
Robin Milner,
A. Gill,
Robin Milner,
Robin Milner,
Robin Milner,
A. Gill,
Rupert Holzinger,
Rupert Holzinger,
Rupert Holzinger,
Rupert Holzinger,
Dušan Materić
Robin Milner,
Nikolaos Evangeliou,
Nikolaos Evangeliou,
Sabine Eckhardt,
Dušan Materić
Nikolaos Evangeliou,
Nikolaos Evangeliou,
Nikolaos Evangeliou,
Nikolaos Evangeliou,
Dušan Materić
Rupert Holzinger,
Rupert Holzinger,
Rupert Holzinger,
Rupert Holzinger,
Rupert Holzinger,
Rupert Holzinger,
Rupert Holzinger,
Rupert Holzinger,
Rupert Holzinger,
Rupert Holzinger,
Rupert Holzinger,
Rupert Holzinger,
Robin Milner,
Sabine Eckhardt,
Dušan Materić
Rupert Holzinger,
Dušan Materić
Rupert Holzinger,
Sabine Eckhardt,
Sabine Eckhardt,
Rupert Holzinger,
Nikolaos Evangeliou,
Rupert Holzinger,
Nikolaos Evangeliou,
Nikolaos Evangeliou,
Nikolaos Evangeliou,
Nikolaos Evangeliou,
Nikolaos Evangeliou,
Dušan Materić
Dušan Materić
Dušan Materić
Dušan Materić
Dušan Materić
Dušan Materić
Rupert Holzinger,
Sabine Eckhardt,
Rupert Holzinger,
Sabine Eckhardt,
Rupert Holzinger,
Sabine Eckhardt,
Rupert Holzinger,
Sabine Eckhardt,
Dušan Materić
Nikolaos Evangeliou,
Dušan Materić
Dušan Materić
Dušan Materić
Nikolaos Evangeliou,
Dušan Materić
Nikolaos Evangeliou,
Rupert Holzinger,
Rupert Holzinger,
Rupert Holzinger,
Sabine Eckhardt,
Dušan Materić
Sabine Eckhardt,
Rupert Holzinger,
Nikolaos Evangeliou,
Sabine Eckhardt,
Sabine Eckhardt,
Sabine Eckhardt,
Dušan Materić
Summary
Researchers combined high-sensitivity TD-PTR-MS (thermal desorption-proton transfer reaction-mass spectrometry) with citizen science sampling by trained mountaineers to measure nanoplastic concentrations at 14 high-altitude glacier sites in the Alps, detecting nanoplastics at concentrations of 2-80 ng/mL at 5 of 14 sites. FLEXPART trajectory modelling identified probable emission sources lying largely to the west in France, Spain, and Switzerland, with tire wear particles, polystyrene, and polyethylene as the dominant polymer types.
<title>Abstract</title> Nanoplastics are suspected to pollute every environment on Earth and reach very remote areas, e.g. via airborne transport. We approached the challenge of measuring environmental nanoplastics by combining high-sensitivity TD-PTR-MS (thermal desorption-proton transfer reaction-mass spectrometry) with trained mountaineers sampling high-altitude glaciers (“citizen science”). We analysed particles < 1 µm for common polymers (polyethylene, polyethylene terephthalate, polypropylene, polyvinyl chloride, polystyrene and tire wear particles), revealing nanoplastic concentrations ranging from 2–80 ng mL<sup>− 1</sup> at five of 14 sites. The major nanoplastic polymer types found in this study were tire wear, polystyrene (PS) and polyethylene (PE) particles (41%, 28% and 12%, respectively). FLEXPART modelling was used to reconstruct possible sources of micro- and nanoplastic emissions for those observations, appearing to lie largely to the west of the Alps, where France, Spain and Switzerland have the highest contributions.