Scientists have long known about microplastics travelling in water, but a new five-month study has now revealed they can also travel by air From nytimes
Researchers in France said that they had recently found thousands and thousands of microplastic particles raining down on a secluded spot in the Pyrenees, 120 kilometres from the nearest city.
But they can also be much smaller than 5 millimeters. The fragments found by the Pyrenees study were generally 10 to 300 microns across, with most roughly 50 microns, Deonie Allen said.“These are invisible atmospheric pollutants,” Ms Allen said.Microplastics can come from a variety of sources, including items like plastic bottles or disposable contact lenses that break down into smaller pieces.
In the ocean, microplastics contribute to phenomena like the swirling gyre of more than 87,000 tons of trash that lies hundreds of kilometres from shore. Researchers, taking samples from two separate monitoring devices, found that 365 pieces of microplastic per square meter rained down from the sky each day.
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