Environmental Change Research Centre, Department of Geography, University College London, Gower Street, London, WC1E 6BT, UK.
Environ Sci Pollut Res Int. 2023 Mar;30(13):39246-39257. doi: 10.1007/s11356-022-24935-0. Epub 2023 Jan 4.
There is increasing concern regarding airborne microplastics, but to date, studies have typically used coarse interval sampling (a day or longer) to generate deposition and concentration estimates. In this proof-of-concept study, we used a Burkard volumetric spore trap (intake 10 L min; recording airborne particulates onto an adhesive-coated tape moving at 2 mm hr) to assess whether this approach has potential to record airborne microplastics at an hourly resolution, thereby providing detailed diurnal patterns. Simultaneous sampling at outdoor and indoor locations at rural and urban sites showed clear daily and weekly patterns in microplastic concentrations which may be related to people and vehicle movement. Indoor residential concentrations of suspected microplastics were the highest (reaching hourly concentrations of 40-50 m), whilst rural outdoor concentrations were very low (typically 1-2 m h). Whilst the approach shows great potential for high resolution data generation, further development is required for spectroscopic analysis and hence chemical confirmation of visual microplastic identification.
人们对空气传播微塑料越来越关注，但迄今为止，研究通常采用粗间隔采样（每天或更长时间）来生成沉积和浓度估算。在这项概念验证研究中，我们使用 Burkard 容量孢子收集器（进气量为 10 升/分钟；将空气传播颗粒记录到以 2 毫米/小时速度移动的粘性涂层带上）来评估这种方法是否有可能以每小时的分辨率记录空气传播微塑料，从而提供详细的昼夜模式。在农村和城市地点的户外和室内同时进行采样显示，微塑料浓度具有明显的日变化和周变化规律，这可能与人员和车辆活动有关。疑似微塑料的室内住宅浓度最高（达到每小时 40-50 米），而农村户外浓度非常低（通常为 1-2 米/小时）。虽然这种方法具有生成高分辨率数据的巨大潜力，但需要进一步开发用于光谱分析的技术，从而对可见微塑料识别进行化学确认。
