Toulouse/Tübingen (dpa -AfX) – According to calculations, people breathe significantly more microplastics than previously assumed. According to a study, an average of 68,000 tiny plastic particles could get into the airways of an adult, especially indoors such as apartments and in cars – around 47,000 in children.
The researchers around Nadiia Yakovenko from the Geoscientific Institute of the University of Toulouse report in the journal “Plos One” that the load with particularly small parts between one and ten micrometers is far higher than before.
Parts of this size are particularly problematic because they penetrate deep into the lungs and may cause inflammation, cell damage or other health problems there. Earlier estimates based on larger particles were around a hundred times lower. “The actual burden of inhaled microplastics has so far been massively underestimated,” says the study.
Interiors heavily contaminated – especially cars
The burden was measured, among other things, in private apartments and in car interior in southern France. While an average of 528 microplastic particles per cubic meter of air were detected in living rooms, the concentration in cars with 2,238 particles was significantly higher. 94 percent of these particles found was smaller than ten micrometers, so they can penetrate the lungs. Subsequently, calculations were made how much of them inhale people on average a day.
According to the study, the main sources of the burden are the abrasion of textiles, plastic furniture or the interior cladding of vehicles. The majority of the proven particles consisted of polyethylene and polyamide plastics that often occur in everyday products.
How the body deals with microplastics
So far, the health effects have hardly been researched. Some of the tiny particles can penetrate deep into the lungs and may cause inflammation processes there.
Eleonore Fröhlich from the Medical University of Graz and professor at the University of Tübingen indicates that microplastics are potentially relevant to health – but compared to significantly higher fine dust pollution is currently than less serious. Fine dust often contains more toxic substances and are available in significantly larger quantities in the air.
But the shape of the particles also play a role in their effects in the body: While fine dust usually consists of rather round particles, microplastics are often fibers or irregular fragments. Such fiber -shaped particles can happily penetrate less deep into the lungs, as they are particularly easy to deposit in the airways. Since the lungs can only remove particles that have been established once, this can affect their function in the long run.
Research is still at the beginning
The authors of the study emphasize that their results are a strong argument for systematically researching the health consequences of the microplastic pollution indoors. People in modern societies spend around 90 percent of their time in closed rooms – potentially in an environment with increased loads from plastic particles in the air.
Calculated values with uncertainties
The direct detection of microplastics in the human body was not tried as part of the study. Instead, air samples were taken indoors and on this basis it was calculated how many particles are theoretically absorbed when breathing – for example in everyday life at home or in the car. The researchers used standard values for the breathing volume of resting people.
Professor Fröhlich points out that the data on measurements from relatively small air volumes and on the analysis are only based on a small part of the overall rehearsal and can therefore be affected with uncertainties: “Every small measurement error continues.” In addition, physical activity could significantly increase the actual recording. A broader data basis is required for reliable statements ./Pls/dp/zb