Microplastics and their Additives in the Indoor Environment

Abstract

Analyses of air and house dust have shown that pollution of the indoor environment with microplastics could pose a fundamental hygienic problem. Indoor microplastics can result from abrasion, microplastic beads are frequently added to household products and microplastic granules can be found in artificial turf for sports activities and in synthetic admixtures in equestrian hall litter. In this context, the question arose as to what extent particulate emissions of thermoplastic materials from 3D printing should be at least partially classified as microplastics or nanoplastics. The discussion about textiles as a possible source of indoor microplastics has also been intensified. This Minireview gives an overview of the current exposure of residents to microplastics. Trends can be identified from the results and preventive measures can be derived if necessary. It is recommended that microplastics and their additives be given greater consideration in indoor environmental surveys in the future.

Polyethylene terephthalate (PET) micro- and nanoplastic particles affect the mitochondrial efficiency of human brain vascular pericytes without inducing oxidative stress

“…Leslie et al 2022 examined 22 anonymised adult donors and therefore we hypothesise that this might not reflect individuals subject to higher plastic exposures, such as occupational exposures. For instance, 3D printing has been an increasing source of concerned related to indoor air pollution (Salthammer, 2022). Additionally, bioavailability and accumulation of nanoplastics in the brain is unknown, yet accumulation of particle matters of diameter less than 1 µm could be the cause of BBB damage (Shih et al, 2018).…”

“…We used a concentration of 50 parts per million of PET particles, i.e. 50 µg/ml which is 31.25 times higher than the average plastic particle detected in human blood (Leslie et al, 2022) to take in account potential bioaccumulation at the BBB (Shih et al, 2018) and occupational exposures (Salthammer, 2022).…”

High-Content Screening Discovers Microplastics Released by Contact Lenses under Sunlight

“…11 The occurrence of microplastics in the air has also been extensively reported, including atmospheric samples, 12 atmospheric deposition, 13,14 indoor air, 15 and dust. 16,17 Cox et al 18 estimated that the average individual intake of microplastics was 39,000−52,000 particles annually, and the estimates increased to 74,000−121,000 particles annually when the amount of inhalation was counted. In terms of human exposure to microplastics, ingestion and inhalation of microplastics have been well studied, while direct contact has been neglected.…”

Assessing the Photodegradation Potential of Compounds Derived from the Photoinduced Weathering of Polystyrene in Water

“…Microplastics have been defined as plastic particles in the 1-5000 μm size range, while nanoplastics are smaller than 1 μm (Frias and Nash, 2019). Adding to the primary environmental sources of small plastic particles (which include their use in fertilizers and release upon runoff from artificial turf pitches; Kumar et al, 2020;Salthammer, 2022), fragmentation highly affects environmental behaviour because of the reactivity of small-sized plastics (Bianco et al, 2020). These can impact living organisms to a different degree than macroplastics, for instance by reaching tissues and crossing membranes (Liu et al, 2021).…”