High temporal resolution records of outdoor and indoor airborne microplastics

Abstract

There is increasing concern regarding airborne microplastics, but to date, studies have typically used coarse interval sampling (a day or longer) to generate deposition and concentration estimates. In this proof-of-concept study, we used a Burkard volumetric spore trap (intake 10 L min−1; recording airborne particulates onto an adhesive-coated tape moving at 2 mm hr−1) to assess whether this approach has potential to record airborne microplastics at an hourly resolution, thereby providing detailed diurnal patterns. Simultaneous sampling at outdoor and indoor locations at rural and urban sites showed clear daily and weekly patterns in microplastic concentrations which may be related to people and vehicle movement. Indoor residential concentrations of suspected microplastics were the highest (reaching hourly concentrations of 40–50 m−3), whilst rural outdoor concentrations were very low (typically 1–2 m−3 h−1). Whilst the approach shows great potential for high resolution data generation, further development is required for spectroscopic analysis and hence chemical confirmation of visual microplastic identification.