Microplastics – “You’re Probably Inhaling Microplastics Right Now”

You’re Probably Inhaling Microplastics Right Now” is the title of a June 25, 2020 New York Times opinion by Janice Brahney, an assistant professor of watershed sciences at Utah State University https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/25/opinion/plastic-air-pollution.html - Her group “... sampled dust in 11 scattered locations, from Joshua Tree National Park in California to the Wind River Range in Wyoming …” – They found microplastics in “… all of our samples … up to 6 percent of the dusts in those far-flung locations are microplastics and that more than 1,000 metric tons are deposited in those places every year by wind and rain … This waste has become so ubiquitous that it’s now in the air we breathe ... If dust in the Grand Canyon contains microplastics, how many of these tiny plastic particles are in city dust? … What effect are they having on the environment? Are microplastics more toxic than other, better-understood sources of air pollution such as natural and industrial dusts? …” - Their research is published in the June 12, 2020 issue of Science magazine at https://science.sciencemag.org/content/368/6496/1257 #Microplastics