Simulating human exposure to indoor airborne microplastics using a Breathing Thermal Manikin

Humans are potentially exposed to microplastics through food, drink, and air. The first two pathways have received quite some scientific attention, while little is known about the latter. We address the exposure of humans to indoor airborne microplastics using a Breathing Thermal Manikin. Three apar...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Scientific reports Vol. 9; no. 1; pp. 8670 - 11
Main Authors: Vianello, Alvise, Jensen, Rasmus Lund, Liu, Li, Vollertsen, Jes
Format: Journal Article
Language:English
Published: London Nature Publishing Group UK 17.06.2019
Nature Publishing Group
Subjects:
639/166/986
639/638/11/2257
704/172/4081
Air Pollutants - analysis
Cellulose
Cellulose acetate
Denmark
Environmental Monitoring - instrumentation
Environmental Monitoring - methods
Food contamination
Food contamination & poisoning
Humanities and Social Sciences
Humans
Indoor air quality
Indoor environments
Manikins
Microplastics
Microplastics - analysis
multidisciplinary
Particle Size
Polyesters
Polyethylene
Polyethylene - analysis
Polymers
Proteins
Respiration
Science
Science (multidisciplinary)
Spectroscopy
Spectrum analysis
Denmark
ISSN:2045-2322, 2045-2322
Online Access:Get full text
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Summary:Humans are potentially exposed to microplastics through food, drink, and air. The first two pathways have received quite some scientific attention, while little is known about the latter. We address the exposure of humans to indoor airborne microplastics using a Breathing Thermal Manikin. Three apartments were investigated, and samples analysed through FPA-µFTIR-Imaging spectroscopy followed by automatic analyses down to 11 µm particle size. All samples were contaminated with microplastics, with concentrations between 1.7 and 16.2 particles m −3 . Synthetic fragments and fibres accounted, on average, for 4% of the total identified particles, while nonsynthetic particles of protein and cellulose constituted 91% and 4%, respectively. Polyester was the predominant synthetic polymer in all samples (81%), followed by polyethylene (5%), and nylon (3%). Microplastics were typically of smaller size than nonsynthetic particles. As the identified microplastics can be inhaled, these results highlight the potential direct human exposure to microplastic contamination via indoor air.
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ISSN:2045-2322
2045-2322
DOI:10.1038/s41598-019-45054-w