Airborne emissions of microplastic fibres from domestic laundry dryers.
THE SCIENCE OF THE TOTAL ENVIRONMENT 2020;
747:141175. [PMID:
32781315 DOI:
10.1016/j.scitotenv.2020.141175]
[Citation(s) in RCA: 63] [Impact Index Per Article: 15.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/10/2020] [Revised: 07/03/2020] [Accepted: 07/20/2020] [Indexed: 05/06/2023]
Abstract
An emission source of microplastics into the environment is laundering synthetic textiles and clothing. Mechanical drying as a pathway for emitting microplastics, however, is poorly understood. In this study, emissions of microplastic fibres were sampled from a domestic vented dryer to assess whether mechanical drying of synthetic textiles releases microplastic fibres into the surrounding air or are captured by the inbuilt filtration system. A blue polyester fleece blanket was repeatedly washed and dried using the 'Normal Dry' program of a common domestic dryer operated at temperatures between 56 and 59 °C for 20 min. Microfibres in the ambient air and during operation of the dryer were sampled and analysed using microscopy for particle quantification and characterisation followed by Fourier-Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FTIR) and Pyrolysis Gas Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry (Pyr-GC/MS) for chemical characterisation. Blue fibres averaged 6.4 ± 9.2 fibres in the room blank (0.17 ± 0.27 fibres/m3), 8.8 ± 8.5 fibres (0.05 ± 0.05 fibres/m3) in the procedural blank and 58 ± 60 (1.6 ± 1.8 fibres/m3) in the sample. This is the first study to measure airborne emissions of microplastic fibres from mechanical drying, confirming that it is an emission source of microplastic fibres into air - particularly indoor air.
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