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Even remote peaks are not free of microplastic
Why in news?
- Researchers have found that secluded mountain region thought to be free of plastic pollution is in fact blanketed by airborne microplastics on a scale comparable to a major city
More about the news
- What are the findings?(1) An average of 365 tiny bits of plastic settled every day on each square meter of an uninhabited, high-altitude area in the Pyrenees straddling France and Spain.(2) Study focused on microplastics mostly between 10 and 150 micro meter across, including fragments, fibers and sheet-like pieces of film.(3) By comparison, a human hair is, on average, about 70 micrometers in width.
- Most significant finding:(1) Microplastics are transported through the atmosphere and deposited in a remote, high-altitude mountain location far from any major city.(2) This means that microplastics are an atmospheric pollutant.(3) Some particles had travelled at least 100 km. Samples were collected at an altitude of more than 1,500 meters.
- About Pyrenees:(1) The Pyrenees mountain range separates the Iberian Peninsula from the rest of Europe, stretching more than 430km between Spain and France and rising higher than 3,400m in elevation.(2) Andorra is a tiny sovereign state in the heart of the chain.
- Microplastic:(1) Plastic is the most prevalent type of marine debris found in our ocean it has size less than five millimeters in length.(2) Microplastics are very small pieces of plastic that pollute the environment.
Source
The hindu