Airborne microplastics in urban, rural and wildland environments on the Tibetan Plateau

Dehua Luo; Zhenfeng Wang; Zhonglu Liao; Gang Chen; Xiaoliang Ji; Yanfang Sang; Liyin Qu; Zheng Chen; Zhonggen Wang; Randy A Dahlgren; Minghua Zhang; Xu Shang

doi:10.1016/j.jhazmat.2023.133177

Airborne microplastics in urban, rural and wildland environments on the Tibetan Plateau

J Hazard Mater. 2024 Mar 5:465:133177. doi: 10.1016/j.jhazmat.2023.133177. Epub 2023 Dec 5.

Authors

Dehua Luo¹, Zhenfeng Wang¹, Zhonglu Liao¹, Gang Chen¹, Xiaoliang Ji¹, Yanfang Sang², Liyin Qu³, Zheng Chen⁴, Zhonggen Wang², Randy A Dahlgren⁵, Minghua Zhang⁵, Xu Shang⁶

Affiliations

¹ Key Laboratory of Watershed Sciences and Health of Zhejiang Province, School of Public Health and Management, Wenzhou Medical University, Wenzhou 325035, China.
² Key Laboratory of Water Cycle and Related Land Surface Processes, Institute of Geographic Sciences and Natural Resources Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100101, China.
³ National and Local Joint Engineering Research Center of Ecological Treatment Technology for Urban Water Pollution, Zhejiang Provincial Key Lab for Subtropical Water Environment and Marine Biological Resources Protection, Wenzhou University, Wenzhou 325035, China.
⁴ Key Laboratory of Watershed Sciences and Health of Zhejiang Province, School of Public Health and Management, Wenzhou Medical University, Wenzhou 325035, China. Electronic address: chenzheng_new@163.com.
⁵ Key Laboratory of Watershed Sciences and Health of Zhejiang Province, School of Public Health and Management, Wenzhou Medical University, Wenzhou 325035, China; Department of Land, Air and Water Resources, University of California Davis, CA 95616, USA.
⁶ Key Laboratory of Watershed Sciences and Health of Zhejiang Province, School of Public Health and Management, Wenzhou Medical University, Wenzhou 325035, China. Electronic address: xshang@wmu.edu.cn.

PMID: 38064947
DOI: 10.1016/j.jhazmat.2023.133177

Abstract

The concentration of airborne microplastics is largely unknown in the remote high mountain area of the Tibetan Plateau. Here we report airborne microplastic concentrations of 2.5-58.8 n/m³ in urban, rural and wildland areas across the Tibetan Plateau, with smaller (∼89% <100 µm) fragments (>80%) dominating. Polyethylene terephthalate, polyethylene, polyamide and polystyrene were the dominant polymers of airborne microplastics on the Tibetan Plateau. Distribution of airborne microplastics was positively correlated with anthropogenic activity indices, such as population density and nighttime light intensity. Although the contribution of long-range atmospheric transport is valid, dispersed villages also appear to be a source of airborne microplastics for wildland areas across the Tibetan Plateau.

Keywords: Airborne; High mountain areas; Particulate contaminant; Spatial variation.