Evidences of Microplastic in Air and Street Dust: A Case Study of Varanasi City, India

Abstract Microplastics (MPs) are ubiquitous in our environment. Its presence in air, water and soil makes it a serious threat to living organisms. The present study aimed to assess the availability of MPs in air and street dust of a metropolitan city Varanasi, India. Suspended dust samples and street dust samples were collected from various sampling sites. The assessment of MPs was conducted by for physical identification binocular microscopy, fluorescence microscopy and Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM), while elemental analysis done by Energy Dispersive X-Ray Analysis (EDX). and finally, Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) was used for functional group analysis. the presence of MPs in both suspended dust and street dust samples of all selected sampling sites was confirmed by results. MPs of different color with the shape of Fragments, Films, Spherules and Fibers were observed in the study. However, most of the MPs were less than 1mm in size. The MPs identified in our study were majorly polypropylene, polystyrene, polyethylene, polyethylene terephthalate, polyester, and polyvinyl chloride. EDX analysis showed presence of trace elements like aluminum, cadmium, magnesium, sodium, and silicon apart from carbon and oxygen, which indicates the presence of additives or adsorption capacity of MPs. Confirmation of MPs in the air of a locality of Varanasi explains the need of deep research in this concerned field to protect our future from negative impacts of breathing MPs.