A first overview of textile fibers, including microplastics, in indoor and outdoor environments
Dris R, Gasperi J, Mirande C, Mandin C, Guerrouache M, Langlois V, Tassin B (2017). Environmental Pollution.
What they found
The first study of fibres in indoor and outdoor air found 1.0–60.0 fibres per cubic metre indoors versus 0.3–1.5 outdoors. Fibres settled indoors at 1,586–11,130 per square metre per day, building up to 190–670 fibres per mg of vacuum dust. 67% were natural (mostly cellulose) and 33% contained petrochemicals, mainly polypropylene.
- Sample
- 2 apartments and 1 office (Paris area), 1 outdoor site
- What it can't tell you
- Three indoor sites only. The authors say the fibres seen were probably too large to inhale; smaller particles were not counted. Only a subset of fibres was chemically identified. Exposure suggested via dust swallowing, especially for young children, but not measured.
- Funding
- Not checked (full text inaccessible).
- Topics
- Air and dust
- Checked against
- Abstract (Europe PMC, PMID 27989388)