Atmospheric and human body microplastic pollution may have been exaggerated by several orders of magnitude

Will the truth about so called microplastics finally come out! Cui bono from all this often repeated alarmism and hysteria about plastic?

Alert: Plastophobia is a serious disorder. Please seek immediate medical help! (Caution: satire)

What about all the benefits of plastics in our lives? What are the possible substitutes (how healthy are the substitutes)?

"Not only has human microplastic exposure likely been overstated, but new research from the University of Vienna finds that previous estimates of atmospheric microplastic pollution may have been exaggerated by “several orders of magnitude.” By comparing real-world environmental samples with widely used models, the researchers found that modeled atmospheric microplastic levels were 100 to 10,000 times higher than what measurements actually showed."

"“High-profile studies reporting the presence of microplastics throughout the human body have been thrown into doubt by scientists who say the discoveries are probably the result of contamination and false positives…

The Guardian [???] has identified seven studies that have been challenged by researchers publishing criticism in the respective journals, while a recent analysis listed 18 studies that it said had not considered that some human tissue can produce measurements easily confused with the signal given by common plastics. ..."

"The atmosphere is an important transport medium that carries microplastics to even the most remote parts of the world. These microplastics can be inhaled and pose a health risk to humans and animals. They can also settle out of the atmosphere and contaminate oceans and soils worldwide. A new study by the Department of Meteorology and Geophysics at the University of Vienna estimates microplastic emissions from land-based and oceanic sources into the atmosphere based on global measurement data and model simulations. The results: over 20 times more microplastic particles are emitted on land than from the ocean. The study was recently published in Nature. ...

In previous studies, the ocean was often cited as the main source. ..."

From the abstract:

"Microplastics (MPs) are global pollutants, yet their atmospheric distribution is poorly understood. Although atmospheric MP measurements have become more abundant, estimates of emissions into the atmosphere vary by orders of magnitude.

Here we compile a global atmospheric MPs dataset and compare it with size-aligned MP model simulations.

Our model simulations show two to four orders of magnitude overestimation of the measured global median atmospheric MP concentrations.

Measured median concentrations over the ocean are 27 times lower than over the land (0.003 and 0.08 particles m−3, respectively). Applying a simple scaling method, we estimate that oceanic emissions are lower in number than land-based emissions.

The total global land-based and oceanic emissions are 6.1 × 1017 (1.3 × 1017 to 1.1 × 1018) particles year−1 and 2.6 × 1016 (2.7 × 1015 to 5.0 × 1016) particles year−1, respectively.

Our results indicate that fewer MP particles are emitted into the atmosphere than previously thought. Land sources dominate the number but not the mass emissions, indicating that MPs emission size distributions should be investigated further."

Doomslayer: Progress Roundup - by Malcolm Cochran

Doubt Cast on “Microplastics Throughout Human Body”

‘A bombshell’: doubt cast on discovery of microplastics throughout human body (behind paywall) "Exclusive: Some scientists say many detections are most likely error, with one high-profile study called a ‘joke’"

Microplastics in the atmosphere: higher emissions from land areas than from the ocean (original news release) "Study reveals large discrepancies between emission estimates and measurements of microplastics in the atmosphere"

Atmospheric microplastic emissions from land and ocean (open access)

Fig. 2: Scaled bottom-up emissions and comparison with top-down and bottom-up estimates.