Marine scientist Anna Sanchez Vidal shows microplastics collected from the sea with a microscope at Barcelona’s University, during a research project “Surfing for Science” to assess contamination by microplastics on the coastline, in Barcelona, Spain, July 5, 2022. (Image for Representation)
| Photo Credit: Reuters

Researchers in Japan have confirmed microplastics are present in clouds, where they are likely affecting the climate in ways that aren’t yet fully understood.

In a study published in Environmental Chemistry Letters, scientists climbed Mount Fuji and Mount Oyama in order to collect water from the mists that shroud their peaks, then applied advanced imaging techniques to the samples to determine their physical and chemical properties.

The team identified nine different types of polymers and one type of rubber in the airborne microplastics — ranging in size from 7.1 to 94.6 micrometers.

Each liter of cloud water contained between 6.7 to 13.9 pieces of the plastics.

What’s more, “hydrophilic” or water-loving polymers were abundant, suggesting the particles play a significant role in rapid cloud formation and thus climate systems.

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“If the issue of ‘plastic air pollution’ is not addressed proactively, climate change and ecological risks may become a reality, causing irreversible and serious environmental damage in the future,” lead author Hiroshi Okochi of Waseda University warned in a statement Wednesday.

When microplastics reach the upper atmosphere and are exposed to ultraviolet radiation from sunlight, they degrade, contributing to greenhouse gasses, added Okochi.

Microplastics — defined as plastic particles under 5 millimeters — come from industrial effluent, textiles, synthetic car tires, personal care products and much more.

These tiny fragments have been discovered inside fish in the deepest recesses of the ocean peppering Arctic sea ice and blanketing the snows on the Pyrenees mountains between France and Spain.

But the mechanisms of their transport have remained unclear, with research on airborne microplastic transport in particular limited.

“To the best of our knowledge, this is the first report on airborne microplastics in cloud water,” the authors wrote in their paper.

Emerging evidence has linked microplastics to a range of impacts on heart and lung health, as well as cancers, in addition to widespread environmental harm.

Could plants be the answer to the looming threat of microplastic pollution? Scientists at the University of British Columbia’s BioProducts Institute found that if you add tannins — natural plant compounds that make your mouth pucker if you bite into an unripe fruit — to a layer of wood dust, you can create a filter that traps virtually all microplastic particles present in water. The experiment remains a lab set-up at this stage. As per a release, the team analysed microparticles released from popular tea bags made of polypropylene. They found that their method trapped from 95.2% to as much as 99.9% of plastic particles in a column of water, depending on the plastic type. When tested in mouse models, the process was proved to prevent the accumulation of microplastics in the organs. Microplastics in a solution come in different sizes, shapes and electrical charges. By taking advantage of the different molecular interactions around tannic acids, the researchers were able to remove virtually all of these different microplastic types.