Study Reveals Nanoplastic Pollution First Detected at Earth’s Pole

KOMPAS.com – Pollution nanoplastics has been detected in the area the poles of the Earth for the first time. The findings of this study indicate that now these tiny particles have spread all over the world.

Pollution nanoparticles Plastic smaller and more toxic than microplastics. Nanoplastics are highly toxicologically active compared to microplastics, but the health effects of both on humans are unknown.

“We detected nanoplastics in the farthest corners of the Earth, both in the Arctic Pole and the south,” said research leader Dusan Materic of the University of Utrecht in the Netherlands as quoted from The Guardian, Saturday (22/1/2022).

Core analysis of the ice sheet Greenland which has a depth of 14 meters represents a layer of snowfall since 1965. This shows contamination nanoplastics at the poles been polluting remote areas for at least 50 years.

“What surprised me was not that we detected nanoplastics there, but that we detected them all the way to the core,” said Materic.

So even though nanoplastics are considered a new pollutant, he continued, they have actually been around for decades.

Also read: Plastic Pollution in the Oceans Threatens the World’s Oxygen, How come?

In the study, scientists also found that pollution nanoplastic at the Earth’s poles, a quarter of the particles come from vehicle tires. nanoparticles it is very light and is thought to be blown into Greenland by winds from cities in North America and Asia.

As for the nanoplastics found in sea ice in the McMurdo Sound in Antarctica, they have most likely been carried by ocean currents to remote continents.

According to scientists, plastic, which is part of a mixture of chemical pollution on Earth, has crossed the safe limit for mankind.

Plastic pollution have been found from the summit of Mount Everest to the depths of the oceans. In fact, people have been known to accidentally ingest and inhale microplastics, with another recent study finding these particles to cause damage to human cells.

Previously, microplastic pollution has been found in Arctic Pole, but the research team had to develop a new detection method for analyzing much smaller nanoparticles.

This study of nanoplastic pollution at Earth’s poles has shown that worn dust from tires may be a major source of marine microplastics and new research provides compelling evidence.

Also read: Air pollution causes 500,000 babies to die, this is the explanation of science

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