Coastal outflows risk of airborne microplastics

A COMBINATION of sewage overflows and coastal winds could be sending billions of airborne microplastic particles into the world’s coastal towns and cities, a new study suggests.

- ROD MINCHIN

Scientists analysed existing records on two years of combined sewer overflows into Plymouth Sound, in Devon.

They then looked at same-day and long-term meteorological and satellite data to assess how often conditions for aerosolisation - the transfer of particles from water to air - occurred.

They found that on 178 days within the two-year period, sewage spills from land to sea coincided with winds of at least 6.5 metres per second (23.4km/h) pushing back to shore and towards Plymouth.

This could have resulted in microplastics and nanoplastics known to be discharged through sewage spills being lifted from the sea.

According to the meteorological data, this could have happened during almost 1,600 hours (10%) of the period studied.

Once there, the airborne particles could have been breathed in by local residents, with an increasing and emerging body of research suggesting microplastics can have a range of detrimental effects on human health.