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Assessment of Microplastics in Roadside Suspended Dust from Urban and Rural Environment of Nagpur, India

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Abstract

Contamination from microplastics is a growing concern around the globe that materialized over the last few decades. Road dust is one of the main contributors of microplastics in an urban environment and presence of microplastics can be a major detriment to health of urban population. The present study focuses on the presence, quantification, and identification of microplastics in the ambient air. Coarse (PM10) and fine (PM2.5) particulates from urban and rural sites of Nagpur, India is collected using high volume air samplers for weekdays and weekends for a period of 24 h. Samples are collected in Polytetrafluoroethylene filter papers and are analyzed using a stereomicroscope, fluorescence microscopic study, and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) analysis. Fluorescence microscopy is conducted using Nile Red staining for analyzing the presence of microplastics and studying its shapes and colors. An average total abundance ranging from 50 to 120 particles/day is observed. Fibers are the dominant shape, and transparent/white is the dominant color observed in all four sites. FTIR analysis is conducted for identification of the chemical composition of particles in Attenuated Reflectance mode. The polymers identified in the region are low-density polyethylene, rayon, rubber fiber, polystyrene, polyaniline, polyolefin, and chlorinated polyvinyl chloride. This research identified significant contamination of the study region from microplastics and highlights the necessity of performing a comprehensive health risk analysis of the study region to examine the impact of microplastics on urban health.

Article Highlights

  • PM10 and PM2.5 samples are collected from urban and rural environment of Nagpur, India

  • Microplastic particles collected from particulate samples are classified based on shape and colour

  • White/transparent and Fibrous microplastics are found to contribute most to the study region

  • Least contribution is from spherical and coloured microplastics

  • Polyethylene is the dominant polymer identified in the study region

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Funding

The authors have received no specific grant from funding agencies in the public, commercial, or not-for-profit sectors for this research.

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Author notes

  1. V. V. Narmadha and Sakshi Patil contributed equally to this work.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Civil Engineering, Vellore Institute of Technology, Vellore, Tamil Nadu, 632 014, India

    Vellora Veetil Narmadha, Jithin Jose & Bathmanabhan Srimuruganandam

  2. Health and Toxicity Cell (EHC), CSIR-National Environmental Engineering Research Institute, Nehru Marg, Nagpur, 440020, India

    Sakshi Patil, Mohd. Ozair Farooqui, Sivanesan Saravanadevi & Kannan Krishnamurthi

  3. Academy of Scientific and Innovative Research (AcSIR), Ghaziabad, U.P., India

    Sakshi Patil, Sivanesan Saravanadevi & Kannan Krishnamurthi

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  1. Vellora Veetil Narmadha
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Correspondence to Bathmanabhan Srimuruganandam.

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Narmadha, V.V., Jose, J., Patil, S. et al. Assessment of Microplastics in Roadside Suspended Dust from Urban and Rural Environment of Nagpur, India. Int J Environ Res 14, 629–640 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s41742-020-00283-0

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s41742-020-00283-0

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