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Microplastics ride the atmosphere
Summary
Research confirms that microplastic particles are transported through the atmosphere over long distances, depositing in remote areas including the Arctic and high mountains. Atmospheric transport is now recognized as a major pathway spreading microplastic contamination to virtually every part of the planet.
Plastic is ubiquitous in human environments—and it doesn’t stay put. Tiny plastic particles have been found in some of the most remote parts of the planet, showing up in ice cores drilled in the Arctic, in protected wilderness areas in the western US, and on high mountains in the European Alps. Researchers have long suspected that these minuscule particles were being transported long distances through the atmosphere before raining down or falling out of the atmosphere as dust. A modeling study published July 14 bolsters the evidence for this idea, modeling how microplastics from vehicle tires and brake pads hitch an atmospheric ride from urban streets to remote regions and the world’s oceans (Nat. Commun. 2020, DOI: 10.1038/s41467-020-17201-9). In recent years, researchers tracing the movement of microplastics into the wild have focused on how the pollutants move through waterways, such as by washing from rivers into the oceans. But this