Environment & Energy
Related: About this forumTracking Airborne Microplastics Using Natural (and Coal Enhanced) Radioactive Isotopes
The paper I'll discuss briefly in this post is this one: Tracing the Transport and Residence Times of Atmospheric Microplastics Using Natural Radionuclides Kunliang Jiang, Jingmin Zhu, Kaijun Su, Xilong Wang, Guoliang Li, Mingyue Deng, and Chaowen Zhang Environmental Science & Technology 2024 58 (35), 15702-15710.
I'll cut to the chase with some excerpts:
Atmospheric microplastics can be deposited on the ground through dry and wet atmospheric fallout, substantially contributing to the presence of microplastics in water and soil environments. (9) Atmospheric transport is emphasized as a crucial pathway impacting the sourcesink dynamics of plastic pollution across different ecosystems. (10) Additionally, owing to their ability to adsorb chemicals, bacteria, and viruses, microplastics are recognized as a novel element within the realm of air pollution. (11?14)
Radon-222 (222Rn, half-life = 3.82 days), a noble gas and decay product in the 238U series, is released from the soil matrix at a constant rate, with >99% of 222Rn in the atmosphere emanating from continental sources. (15) As the long-lived daughters of 222Rn (Supporting Figure 1), (16,17) 210Pb, 210Bi, and 210Po are rapidly adsorbed onto solid particles upon formation, with their fates aligning with those of aerosol-bound particles. The 210Po/210Pb ratio enables the estimation of the residence time of aerosols (RTA), based on two assumptions: (1) the measured atmospheric particulate matter (PM) is treated as a single entity, and (2) all particle-reactive radionuclides produced by 222Rn decay are scavenged from the atmosphere before reaching a new area. Beryllium-7 (7Be, half-life = 53.3 days), a cosmogenic radionuclide, originates from the spallation of oxygen and nitrogen nuclei induced by cosmic rays in the stratosphere and upper troposphere. (18,19) The majority of sup]7Be production (67%) occurs in the stratosphere, and it typically does not reach the troposphere except during thinning of tropopause folds near the jet stream at midlatitudes in the spring. (15,20) Due to their distinctly different source terms but well-established source distributions, 7Be and 210Pb are widely employed as powerful atmospheric tracers for studying the origins and transport processes of air masses. (15,21)
As PM contains microplastics, active particulate samplers are considered appropriate tools for collecting atmospheric microplastics. (22) Aerosol samples are typically collected by filtering a large volume of air via specialized aerosol collection equipment, (15) enabling simultaneous analysis of filtered microplastic particles and trapped natural radionuclides on the filters. However, plastic and nonplastic particles are intermixed during the atmospheric filtration process, rendering separation of their adsorbed radionuclides impossible. Chen et al. (23) reported that the transport dynamics of plastic particles are generally similar to those of nonplastic particles. Thus, the fates of aerosols are closely linked to those of plastic particles.
Herein, we utilized aerosol tracers (7Be, 210Pb, and 210Po) to trace the origins and transport processes of atmospheric microplastics for the first time in Tianjin, a coastal city in China. The aims of the study were to (i) document the temporal variations in and features of atmospheric microplastics; (ii) examine the origins, transport processes, and residence times of microplastics; and (iii) explore the correlations between microplastics and other components of the atmosphere...
Some graphics:
The cartoon introducing the paper:
Others:
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I've noted here and elsewhere that people like to carry on about radionuclides released from, say, Fukushima, even though there is very little, if any, evidence that these releases have actually killed anyone, but the same people are disinterested in how many people are killed by air pollution generated by coal combustion, which in a typical decade will result in tens of millions of deaths. I wonder if we could get these people to give a shit if they understood that coal ash is (gasp! freakout! gasp!) radioactive, since it contains uranium and all of its radioactive daughters.
This paper notes that coal combustion complicates their work:
Anyway...
From the conclusion to the paper:
Have a nice day tomorrow.
dweller
(25,146 posts)Additionally, owing to their ability to adsorb chemicals, bacteria, and viruses, microplastics are recognized as a novel element within the realm of air pollution. (11?14)
🫤
We are so fucked
Have a nice day of your shortened life
😐
✌🏻
NNadir
(34,755 posts)It is for them I have regrets, what my generation did to all those to follow.
History will not forgive us, nor should it.
cachukis
(2,720 posts)inclusion of microplastics and radionuclides in our daily dealings?
Have we not been contending with smog, say, for sometime?
I camped in a cabin alongside Interstate 75 near Forsyth, GA recently.
The amount of soot on the hand rails darkened my hands.
Should I be worried.
Alice in Venice, FL.
NNadir
(34,755 posts)...radioactive. This may be a major mechanistic driver of evolution, along with kinetic chemical and biochemical effects.
Potassium is an essential element in all living things, and it has always been radioactive. 40K has a half life of 1.227 billion years.
As for micro and nano plastics, they are new, but probably, if not likely, to be similar to soot in their biological effects; it's not yet understood. It's not pretty.
Uranium, of course, exists, with all of its decay daughters in its decay series. Human activities, mining - fossil fuel mining is a major source of radioactivity releases; there are flow back water ponds in Pennsylvania that are more radioactive than the seas outside of the big bogeyman at Fukushima, because of the release of 226Ra. Of course uranium mining and refining also releases daughter isotopes.
It is probably the case that life expectancy, which has risen dramatically over the recent centuries, will begin a decline because of these environmental effects, the most serious of which may - probably is - extreme global heating. We may already be seeing that.
Individual lives will be - are - affected, but life itself is amazing, if nothing else, for its adaptability. Living things will adapt. There already are microorganisms that can metabolize some plastics.
I hope this helps with any anxiety.
None of this means we should not do everything to slow, even arrest, dramatic changes to our environment. We're playing a very dangerous game where humanity is concerned.
cachukis
(2,720 posts)what's coming. Have read about microorganisms processing some plastics.
I suspect you are right about declining life spans, but they have been extended by medicines and technology.
I think the schmutz we breathe will outpace the technology to extend our ability to survive it.
I concur that heat is more immediate.
Humanity's self serving lust for enjoyment may not last for most.
We are swimming in a sea of nano plastics and I guess nothing but catastrophe will raise an eyebrow.
Just thinking about my grandkids and what we have left them.