“It’s raining plastic”: Landmark research identifies a rocky road ahead

19 Aug 2019 --- Microscopic plastic fibers identified in rainwater samples from the rural Rocky Mountain National Park, further highlighting the ubiquitous nature of plastic fibers and particles - commonly referred to as microplastics. Gregory Wetherbee, the study author, notes that the findings show that the pollution of plastic fibers is not just an urban condition and that they are everywhere – in our air, water and soil. Moving forward, the author calls for better methods for sampling, identification, and quantification of plastic deposition along with the assessment of potential ecological effects. Wetherbee’s concluding note: “It is raining plastic.”

Microplastics – defined as less than 5mm in diameter – come from numerous sources, including discarded plastic items that have broken apart, microbeads from cosmetics, cleaning products and industrial materials, as well as microfibers from clothes.

Gregory Wetherbee spotlights that the potential effects of these materials on biota is not yet understood. 

Photomicrographs of plastics collected at the NUANC NTN subnetwork, Sugarloaf, and Loch Vale sites in Colorado.Indeed, whether or not microplastics present harm to human health and/or the environment has been a hot topic in recent years. Since microplastics were identified in bottled water from 11 leading brands by New Orb Media in March last year, the World Health Organization (WHO) launched a formal investigation into the potential impacts of microplastics on humans, but no solid conclusion has been released as of yet.

Wetherbee had initially set out to analyze environmental samples in order to study nitrogen pollution. However, in the atmospheric wet deposition samples collected using the National Atmospheric Deposition Program/National Trends Network (NADP/NTN) at eight sites in the Colorado Front Range, plastics were identified. They appeared in more than 90 percent of the samples. The plastic materials were mostly fibers that were only visible with magnification, approximately 20–40 times. 

Although a higher concentration of plastic materials were seen in samples taken from urban sites – including beads and shards – samples from remote, mountains sites also had a positive plastic result. This includes samples from Loch Vale in Rocky Mountain National Park which stands at an elevation level of 3,159 meters.

Microplastics: Macro problem?
This is not the first time microplastics have cropped up in a remote location. 

They have been identified on the tops of the Himalayas, the deepest ocean trenches, as well as the North and the Southpole, according to Jeroen Dagevos, Head of Programs at the Plastic Soup Foundation. 

“More and more scientists are concerned this will also influence our own, and our children’s health. Microplastics end up in our food, water and we breathe them. We need to reduce our Plastic Footprint. Otherwise, we will choke in all the plastic we create,” Dagevos tells PackagingInsights.

Microplastics were even found in the guts of every marine mammal, including dolphins and whales, examined in a study of animals washed up on UK shores. This University of Exeter study found that most of the particles, 84 percent, were synthetic fibers – which can come from sources including clothes, fishing nets and toothbrushes – while the rest were fragments, with possible sources including food packaging and plastic bottles. 

In a previous finding, the same team had identified record high levels of microplastics in deep sand in the Mediterranean region where turtles typically lay their eggs. 

Furthermore, research published in October last year by the Medical University of Vienna and the Environment Agency Austria has found particles made of polypropylene (PP), polyethylene terephthalate (PET) and others in human stools. Plastics have been found in soil, rain and even bottled water.

A range of players across industries are calling for action to reduce the levels of microplastics able to enter the environment. One such way is cutting it off at the source through plastic reduction. This can be achieved through community and societal pressure, as well as regulatory changes. 

In a regulatory attempt in January, the EU moved to reduce the use of microplastics across a range of sectors, but this came under attack a few months ago from the chemicals industry. In a landmark proposal in January, the European Chemicals Agency (ECHA) called on the EU to use its stringent chemical laws to stop most microplastics and microbeads being added to cosmetics, paints, detergents and some farm and medical products. However, the biggest chemical industry lobby in Brussels, CEFIC, has deemed this proposal as “too broad,” claiming ECHA had “exceeded its competence in drafting it.”

The ECHA says that the scale of the microplastic problem is dramatic: six times the size of the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, or the plastic pollution generated by 10 billion plastic bottles. Now, the proposal is in the public consultation phase until September.

However, even if society does greatly reduce its plastic usage, it is not known how long this reduction would take to have an impact on microplastics in the environment. Also, the ones that are already there may take centuries to disintegrate.  

As research on microplastics increases and methods of analysis become stronger, we may have more of an idea of what we are dealing with, including the impact on human and environmental health. 

By Laxmi Haigh