Microplastics in Air and Their Health Hazard

Microplastics in the air have emerged as a major concern for the global environment because of their ubiquity and potential health implications. This chapter reviewed the occurrences, distributions, sources, and health concerns of airborne microplastics (MPs) in both indoor and outdoor air. Additionally, it reviewed the statistical approaches useful for measuring human health risks from airborne MPs. We found that all studies around the world identified a detectable amount of MPs in the collected samples, indicating an omnipresence of MPs in the air. Various MP sources were identified, and they varied in outdoor and indoor environments. In most cases, fragmented MPs were dominant in indoor and outdoor air samples. Polyethylene was found to be the most common polymer in most of the studies. Several studies concluded that MPs in outdoor and indoor air can potentially cause adverse human health conditions, whereas indoor air was identified as more detrimental than outdoor air. However, in-depth studies on human health assessment for MPs are very limited. Several statistical tools can be used to calculate health risks.