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Leafy Vegetable Assimilation of Atmospheric Microplastics/Nanoplastics: An Overlooked Source in Human Food?
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This research highlights that leafy vegetables like lettuce can absorb microplastics and nanoplastics directly from the air through their leaves, not just from contaminated soil or water. This atmospheric pathway has been largely overlooked as a source of microplastic contamination in food crops. The finding suggests that people may be consuming more microplastics through salads and leafy greens than previously estimated.
ADVERTISEMENT RETURN TO ISSUEPREVHighlightNEXTLeafy Vegetable Assimilation of Atmospheric Microplastics/Nanoplastics: An Overlooked Source in Human Food?Jun Zhou*Jun ZhouState Key Laboratory of Soil and Sustainable Agriculture, Institute of Soil Science, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Nanjing 210008, ChinaNational Engineering and Technology Research Center for Red Soil Improvement, Red Soil Ecological Experiment Station, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Yingtan 335211, ChinaUniversity of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China*[email protected]More by Jun ZhouView Biographyhttps://orcid.org/0000-0001-9914-6808 and Ruizhi XiaRuizhi XiaState Key Laboratory of Soil and Sustainable Agriculture, Institute of Soil Science, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Nanjing 210008, ChinaUniversity of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, ChinaMore by Ruizhi XiaCite this: Environ. Sci. Technol. Lett. 2024, 11, 2, 51–53Publication Date (Web):January 3, 2024Publication History Received7 December 2023Accepted18 December 2023Revised15 December 2023Published online3 January 2024Published inissue 13 February 2024https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/acs.estlett.3c00887https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.estlett.3c00887letterACS PublicationsCopyright © Published 2024 by American Chemical Society. This publication is available under these Terms of Use. Request reuse permissions This publication is free to access through this site. Learn MoreArticle Views1495Altmetric-Citations-LEARN ABOUT THESE METRICSArticle Views are the COUNTER-compliant sum of full text article downloads since November 2008 (both PDF and HTML) across all institutions and individuals. These metrics are regularly updated to reflect usage leading up to the last few days.Citations are the number of other articles citing this article, calculated by Crossref and updated daily. Find more information about Crossref citation counts.The Altmetric Attention Score is a quantitative measure of the attention that a research article has received online. Clicking on the donut icon will load a page at altmetric.com with additional details about the score and the social media presence for the given article. Find more information on the Altmetric Attention Score and how the score is calculated. Share Add toView InAdd Full Text with ReferenceAdd Description ExportRISCitationCitation and abstractCitation and referencesMore Options Share onFacebookTwitterWechatLinked InRedditEmail PDF (3 MB) Get e-AlertscloseSUBJECTS:Crops,Environmental pollution,Particulate matter,Plant derived food,Plants Get e-Alerts
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