Scientists ‘smell’ Amsterdam nanoplastics in the pristine high Alps

A very unpleasant surprise.

Some time ago, an international team of researchers – including scientists from Utrecht University – traveled to the high Alps to hunt for organic particles. They used a special detection method for this, in which they first evaporate snow and ice samples and then burn what remains. By analyzing the resulting vapors, they can then determine what exactly is in the snow and ice. It resulted in an unpleasant surprise, says researcher Dušan Materić. “Our detection method (…) unexpectedly turned out to smell the smell of burnt plastic in our snow samples.” This mainly concerned the smell of polypropylene and polyethylene terephthalate.

Nanoplastics

The smell turned out to be from tiny particles of plastic that were less than 200 nanometers in size. In concrete terms, this means that they can only measure up to the thickness of a human hair if you put a hundred of these particles next to each other. The tiny plastic particles can be classified as nanoplastics and are considerably smaller than the plastic particles found in remote areas during previous studies.

Origin

In their study, the scientists not only show that nanoplastics can be found in the high Alps, but also reveal that they are in considerable quantities. It is remarkable, especially when you consider that the monsters are collected in a remote area. “It is highly unlikely that these nanoplastics come from this pristine Alpine region,” said Materić. “But where do they come from?” Materić and colleagues couldn’t let go of that question, so they decided to look for an answer. “We have completely overhauled our research project to study this further.”

The suspicion quickly arose that the plastics had been moved to the high Alps by the wind. The scientists found a striking correlation between high concentrations of nanoplastics and wind from the direction of densely populated areas in Europe. “Based on advanced models, we conclude that nanoplastics have been transported by air from urban areas,” said Materić.

Amsterdam

Large cities in Germany, France, England, but also the Netherlands appear to be important sources of the nanoplastics found in the Alps. You can think of London, Paris, Frankfurt, Stuttgart, Munich, but also Amsterdam.

From afar

But it doesn’t stop there, the scientists write in the magazine Environmental Pollution. The data also suggest that some of the nanoplastic has traveled an even longer journey through the air. For example, one day the researchers measured that quite a few nanoplastics were deposited that could not possibly have come from Europe. At that time, the air that brought the nanoplastics to the Alps had no contact with the European surface. “The last contact with the surface occurred 96 hours earlier, over the Atlantic Ocean, more than 3,000 kilometers away.” It indicates that nanoplastics can travel enormous distances.

Potentially Concern

The researchers studied the concentration of nanoplastics in the high Alps for 1.5 months. During that time, more than 200 billion pieces of nanoplastic were deposited in this remote area every week. It is cause for concern, say the researchers. Not least because these nanoplastics have been brought to the Alps by the wind from the areas where we work and live. And that in turn suggests that those nanoplastics are also in the air in our immediate vicinity. “It’s potentially worrying because that could mean the air we breathe also contains nanoplastics.” And because they are so small, those nanoplastics can penetrate deep into the lungs and even end up in the bloodstream, the researchers write in their research article.

Whether this actually happens and what consequences it may have for health remains to be seen from further research. In addition, further research is required to determine the extent to which nanoplastics are also present in the air in inhabited areas. Material has now received a grant from the Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research (NWO) to further explore this research question. He will use that money to research, for example, the size distribution of nanoplastics in the indoor air, city air and rural air.