Plastic breath: Quantification of microplastics and polymer additives in airborne particles

The widespread use of synthetic polymers has led to a significant environmental crisis caused by plastic pollution, with microplastics being found in various environments and posing risks to both human health and the ecosystems. The potential for plastic fragments to disperse in the air as particulate and to be inhaled by humans, potentially causes harm to the respiratory and other systems. Therefore, there is a particular need to study microplastics as air pollutants. In this study, we tested a combination of analytical pyrolysis, gas chromatography, and mass spectrometry, as well as gas and liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry, to identify and quantify both microplastics and their additives in airborne particulate matter and settled dust from two work environments. By using this combined approach, we were able to accurately quantify ten distinct synthetic polymers as well as eight classes of polymer additives. The determined additives include phthalate esters, adipates, citrates, sebacates, trimellitates, benzoates, organophosphates, and newly developed brominated flame retardants. This study received funding from the European Union - Next-GenerationEU - National Recovery and Resilience Plan (NRRP) – MISSION 4 COMPONENT 2, INVESTIMENT N. 1.1, CALL PRIN 2022 D.D. 104 02-02-2022 – DIORAMA (A deep dive into the study of microplastics in aqueous matrices) Also see: https://micro2024.sciencesconf.org/557006/document