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Harm from plastic is present even in the air
Last reviewed: 02.07.2025
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Environmental scientists have announced some unpleasant news: microplastic particles can spread in the air for hundreds of kilometers.
The fact that plastic is massively polluting the ocean has been known for a long time. Environmentalists have been trying to combat this problem for many years, but so far without much success, because plastic particles are present even at depth. According to forecasts, soon there will be more plastic in the water than sea creatures. The earth's surface is no less polluted - to see this, just look around. But, as it turns out, plastic particles are also present in the air we breathe.
Scientists from the French National Centre for Scientific Research, the University of Orleans and several other French and British research centres used special equipment to collect everything that was carried by the winds to a meteorological station in the Pyrenees. Tests were carried out every month, from November 2017 to March 2018 inclusive. According to the average data, about 365 microplastic particles were found per square metre per day – a similar amount can be found on the streets of Paris or other large cities. However, there was a difference, and it lay in the size and composition of the microparticles.
Previous studies have already proven that in the air of large populated areas, the plastic particle looks like a tiny polyethylene terephthalate or polypropylene fiber longer than 100 micrometers: the origin of such fibers can be explained by the presence of a large number of textile products and components on the streets. As for the microparticles that were found in the Pyrenees, they were no more than 25 micrometers long, and their structure was polystyrene or polyethylene: therefore, they were “torn off” from some plastic container or packaging. So far, scientists have not been able to determine the exact source of the plastic particles. But specialists have received all the necessary information about the direction and intensity of the wind flow, which was recorded during the study. This allowed ecologists to draw the appropriate conclusions: it turns out that the microparticles covered a distance of at least 95 kilometers before reaching the meteorological station. Scientists were surprised, because there were no settlements or cities at this distance from the weather station. It was therefore concluded that the plastic had likely travelled much further than originally thought.
Thus, the pollution of our planet is reaching the next dangerous level, because plastic is already present even where it cannot and should not appear. Now scientists have to assess the harm of such microparticles for animals and humans, as well as the impact of their presence in the air on global warming processes.
An article on this material was published in Nature Geoscience. Link to the news: www.sciencenews.org/article/tiny-microplastics-travel-far-wind