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And we've known this for some time, in other areas: >Scientists recorded a daily rate of 365 microplastic particles per square meter falling from the sky in th

And we've known this for some time, in other areas: >Scientists recorded a daily rate of 365 microplastic particles per square meter falling from the sky in the Pyrenees Mountains in southern France. https://www.nationalgeographic.com/environment/2019/04/microplastics-pollution-falls-from-air-even-mountains/ https://www.nationalgeographic.com/environment/2019/04/micro...

semi-extrinsic 7y ago
In other research, scientists found that approx. 100 microplastic particles fall on a dinner plate during the course of a meal. If that's a long meal (1h) and a very large dinner plate (0.25 m^2), it gives us a lowball estimated rate of 10 000 per square meter per day, every day inside the house where you live. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0269749117344445?via%3Dihub https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S026974911...
- air7 7y ago
  This oddly makes me feel less anxious about this issue. If everyone is ingesting microplastics all the time for a while now, it proves that at least in the short term there aren't any really bad effects. Otherwise we would've noticed it by now.
  - codesushi42 7y ago
    Yeah, because we already know what causes things like cancer, autism and a host of other diseases, right? Surely it can't be microplastics.
    - papln 7y ago
      Quite bizarre to single out "autism" there.
      - codesushi42 7y ago
        I'm sorry, did you want a complete list of known diseases with unknown causes? Let me Google that for you.
        a_t48 7y ago
        Nit: autism isn't a disease, it's classified as a disorder. And isn't quite on the level of cancer, regardless.
      - reilly3000 7y ago
        Most of the latest research on autism causes points to endocrine disruption in mothers, and it seems that micro-plastics might affect fetal hormones. It seems relevant to me.
- kurthr 7y ago
  I do worry about atmospheric plastic particles, but... I suspect that reported air quality metrics like PM10/PM2.5 measure this already. I'm doubtful that 10k plastic particles are landing inside your house simply because external air turnover isn't that fast (only a few per day). Either it's coming from inside your house or the density outside is anomalously high. The total volume would be <10m3 and peak PM10 is typically less than 5ug/m³ (often less than 1 where I live). A 10um diameter particle is a few nanograms so 10,000 would mean all of the particles in the air are plastic. We know that dust, smoke, and other sources are significant as well.
  - ryanmercer 7y ago
    > I'm doubtful that 10k plastic particles are landing inside your house simply because external air turnover isn't that fast (only a few per day). In your house they are likely much higher as they're coming from your shoes, your synthetic fiber clothes, your carpet, that 25 year old plastic dog your gran gave you. The carpet fiber dust at my job is insane, I wipe down my plane model every day, and 24 hours later you can see little red/blue/green/tan carpet fibers already accumulating from the foot traffic in the office, if I let it go a week it (and skin/hair etc) will cake on my finger if I run it down.
    - kurthr 7y ago
      Wool carpets on hardwood floors. I see plenty of dust outside (construction?) but very little in the house. If I don't wipe the table for a week, I can't tell other than animal foot prints. I leave windows and doors open hours every day. At work the office seems about class 100k, but I guess the aircon system if filtering well enough. I don't doubt it's possible to create such an environment, but it's not "natural" or environmental other than in the sense of what you choose (as much as circumstances let you) to live in.

semi-extrinsic 7y ago

In other research, scientists found that approx. 100 microplastic particles fall on a dinner plate during the course of a meal. If that's a long meal (1h) and a very large dinner plate (0.25 m^2), it gives us a lowball estimated rate of 10 000 per square meter per day, every day inside the house where you live. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0269749117344445?via%3Dihub https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S026974911...

air7 7y ago
This oddly makes me feel less anxious about this issue. If everyone is ingesting microplastics all the time for a while now, it proves that at least in the short term there aren't any really bad effects. Otherwise we would've noticed it by now.
- codesushi42 7y ago
  Yeah, because we already know what causes things like cancer, autism and a host of other diseases, right? Surely it can't be microplastics.
  - papln 7y ago
    Quite bizarre to single out "autism" there.
    - codesushi42 7y ago
      I'm sorry, did you want a complete list of known diseases with unknown causes? Let me Google that for you.
      - a_t48 7y ago
        Nit: autism isn't a disease, it's classified as a disorder. And isn't quite on the level of cancer, regardless.
    - reilly3000 7y ago
      Most of the latest research on autism causes points to endocrine disruption in mothers, and it seems that micro-plastics might affect fetal hormones. It seems relevant to me.
kurthr 7y ago
I do worry about atmospheric plastic particles, but... I suspect that reported air quality metrics like PM10/PM2.5 measure this already. I'm doubtful that 10k plastic particles are landing inside your house simply because external air turnover isn't that fast (only a few per day). Either it's coming from inside your house or the density outside is anomalously high. The total volume would be <10m3 and peak PM10 is typically less than 5ug/m³ (often less than 1 where I live). A 10um diameter particle is a few nanograms so 10,000 would mean all of the particles in the air are plastic. We know that dust, smoke, and other sources are significant as well.
- ryanmercer 7y ago
  > I'm doubtful that 10k plastic particles are landing inside your house simply because external air turnover isn't that fast (only a few per day). In your house they are likely much higher as they're coming from your shoes, your synthetic fiber clothes, your carpet, that 25 year old plastic dog your gran gave you. The carpet fiber dust at my job is insane, I wipe down my plane model every day, and 24 hours later you can see little red/blue/green/tan carpet fibers already accumulating from the foot traffic in the office, if I let it go a week it (and skin/hair etc) will cake on my finger if I run it down.
  - kurthr 7y ago
    Wool carpets on hardwood floors. I see plenty of dust outside (construction?) but very little in the house. If I don't wipe the table for a week, I can't tell other than animal foot prints. I leave windows and doors open hours every day. At work the office seems about class 100k, but I guess the aircon system if filtering well enough. I don't doubt it's possible to create such an environment, but it's not "natural" or environmental other than in the sense of what you choose (as much as circumstances let you) to live in.