Environment: Long-distance movement of microplastics

 
A paper suggesting that microplastics detected in southern France may have been transported over 4500 kilometers from their source across continents and oceans will be published in Nature Communications.The findings from this study suggest that microplastic contamination can spread worldwide, far from the source.

Plastic pollution has also been reported in areas where little plastic is used, including highlands and high latitudes.The theory has been raised that the transport of microplastics in the atmosphere is occurring on a regional scale, but how widespread this phenomenon is, microplastics, like mercury and other pollutants, constrains them. It is not known if it will be transported in the atmosphere without receiving it and will be able to cross the continent.

Now, Steve Allen and colleagues have collected atmospheric microplastics at the Picdumidi Observatory in the highlands of the French Pyrenees in southern France to understand what is believed to be the source and pathway of microplastic particles. We modeled the air transportation.As a result, it was found that multiple air masses containing microplastic particles traveled an average of about 1 kilometers in the week before reaching the Pic du Midi Observatory, reaching mainly from the west across the Atlantic Ocean and from the south to the Mediterranean Sea. It was estimated that it reached beyond. Allen et al. Say that North America, Western Europe, and North Africa are possible sources of microplastics, which is the transport of microplastics across continents and oceans in the free troposphere (the atmosphere above the clouds). Is shown.

These findings suggest that areas where little plastic is used may be affected by areas of distant microplastic sources.

 
* This article is reprinted from "Nature Japan Featured Highlights".
Reprinted from: "Environment: Microplastics that travel long distances'