Table 1.
The abundance of indoor and outdoor airborne MPs in some regions and countries
| Location | Concentration | Shape/form | Size | Color | Polymer type | Analytical techniques | Reference |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Paris France | (29—280 particles m−2 day−1 total atmospheric fallout) and (260—320 × 103 particles m−3 wastewater) | Fibers | 100–5000 μm | * | * | Stereomicroscope | (Dris et al. 2015) |
| France | 2 and 355 particles/m2/day | Fibers | 50–600 μm | * | * | Stereomicroscope and FTIR | (Dris et al. 2016) |
| China | Non-fibrous and fibers 175–313 particles/m2/day | Fiber, foam, fragment, and film | * | * |
PE, PP, and PS |
Digital microscope, FTIR, SEM | (Cai et al. 2017) |
| France | Indoor (1.0–60.0) fibers/m3, Outdoor (0.3–1.5) fibers/m3 | Fibers | 50–4850 μm | * | * | Stereomicroscope and FTIR | (Dris et al. 2017) |
| Turkey | 8 MPs per 30 mints | Fibers and fragments | * | DB, W, BL, TP, PP, and BR | PA 66, PA 6, PUR, PE, PP, and PES | Light microscope and FTIR | (Tunahan Kaya et al. 2018) |
| China | 1.7 and 16.2 particles m−3 |
Synthetic fragments, fibers, and nonsynthetic particles of protein and cellulose |
* | * | PES, PE, PA, PS, and PUR |
micro FTIR and FPA IS |
(Vianello et al. 2019) |
| Germany | PE and PP were 0.03 to 3.3 mg/g | * | * | * | PP and PE | Pyr-GC–MS | (Dierkes et al. 2019) |
| Germany | 136.5 and 512 MPs per m2/day | Fragments and fibers | (300–63 Fragments) (9300–63 fibers μm) | * |
PE, EVAC PTFE and PVA |
Fluorescence microscope and micro Raman spectroscopy | (Klein & Fischer 2019) |
| China |
PET 1550–120,000 mg/kg indoor and 212–9020 mg/kg outdoor and PC 4.6 mg/kg indoor and 2.0 mg/kg outdoor |
Fibers and granules | * | * | PET and PC |
LC–MS/MS, optical microscopy and micro FTIR, |
(Liu et al. 2019a) |
| China | 0–4.18 n/m3 | Fiber, fragments and granules | 23.07–9555 μm | BR, GN, YL, and GR | PET, PE, PES, PAN, PAA, RY, EVA, EP, and ALK | Stereomicroscope and micro FTIR, | (Liu et al. 2019b) |
| Iran | 900 MPs and 250 micro rubbers per 15 g sample |
Fiber, film, fragment or spherule |
(< 100 to > 1000 μm) | WT, YO, RP, BG or BGY | * |
Binocular microscopy, polarized light microscopy and fluorescence microscopy |
(Abbasi et al. 2019) |
| China |
54 granules g−1 of MPs in Sipunculus nudus |
* | * | * |
PE, PS, PVC and PET |
Fluorescent microscope | (Lv et al. 2019) |
| Shanghai. China | SAMPs ranged from 0 to 2 n/m3 | Fibrous, fragment, and microbead | * | GR, BL, GN, TP, PP, and BR |
PET, EP, PE, ALK, RY, PP, PA, and PS |
FTIR | (Liu et al. 2019c) |
| France |
Average daily particle deposition of 365 m–2 day |
Fragment, films, and fibers | * | * | PS, PE, PP, and PET | Visual microscopy inspection and micro Raman | (Allen et al. 2019) |
| London England | 575–1008 MPs/m2/day | Fibrous, non-fibrous, and synthetic | 20–25 μm (fibrous). 75 μm and 100 μm (non-fibrous) | * | PAN, PET, PA, PUR, PP, PS, PE, and PVC | Fluorescence, stereo microscope & FTIR | (Wright et al. 2019b) |
| China |
Dormitory (9.9 × 103), office (1.8 × 103) and corridor (1.5 × 103) MPs/m2/day |
Fibers | * | TP, BL, RD, BK, YL, PP and GN |
PES, RY, PMMA, Cellophane, PP, PS, and PA |
micro FTIR and stereomicroscope | (Zhang et al. 2020d) |
| California United states | Indoor (fibers 3.3 ± 2.9 and 12.6 ± 8.0 fragments m–3) outdoor air (0.6 ± 0.6 fibers and 5.6 ± 3.2 fragments m–3) | Fragments and fibers | Indoor fragments (58.6 ± 55) & fibers (641 ± 810.7) outdoor fragments (104.8 ± 64.9) & fibers (616 ± 536.7) μm | * | PE, PET, PVC, PS, PC, acrylic, and resin |
Fluorescent microscopy, micro Raman spectroscopy and FTIR |
(Gaston et al. 2020) |
| 12 different countries |
PET 38–120,000 μg/g & PC < 0.11–1700 μg/g |
* | * | * | PET and PC | HPLC–MS/MS | (Zhang et al. 2020a) |
| China | MPs 136–2060 items/kg, PET 536–660 mg/kg, and PC 83.9–196 mg/kg | Granule, fragment, fiber, and film, | 13 μm–5 mm | * | PC and PET | LC–MS/MS | (Duan et al. 2020) |
| Sydney Australia | MPs deposition rate 22–6169 fibers/m2/day | Fibers, fragments and films | 50 – 600 μm | BK, GN, BL, RD, GR, BR,TP | PE, PES, PA, PAA, PVC and PS | Stereomicroscope, fluorescent microscope and micro FTIR | (Soltani et al. 2021) |
| Spain |
1.5 and 13.9 MPs m−3 above rural and urban areas |
Fibers and fragments | 10–70 μm | W, BK, GN, TP, RD, WR, |
PES, PA, acrylic PUR, PS, BR and polyolefin, RY |
Stereomicroscope, and micro FTIR | (González-Pleiter et al. 2021) |
| Vietnam | 71–917 items m−2 day−1 | Fibers and fragments | 300–5000 μm | * | * | Stereomicroscope, and FTIR | (Truong et al. 2021) |
| United kingdom | 902–14,551 particles m−2 day−1 | Fibers film, spheres, foam and fragments | 5–5000 μm | * | PET, PA, acrylates, PP, PAN, PE, PMMA | Stereomicroscope, and micro FTIR | (Jenner et al. 2021) |
| Poland | 0–30 MPs m−2 day−1 | Fibres, fragments and film | 5–5000 μm | * |
PES, PP, PE, PVC, EPM and PVA |
Digital microscope and micro FTIR | (Szewc et al. 2021) |
* data is not available, while the abbreviations are mentioned at the top of the paper