Analysis of suspended atmospheric microplastics size at different elevation in Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, Kuala Lumpur

Abstract

Atmospheric microplastics can be found in the atmospheres of urban, suburban, and even remote locations. To date, limited studies have been done in investigating the microplastics contamination at different elevation. In this regard, suspended atmospheric microplastics were sampled at two different elevations in Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, Kuala Lumpur. The sampling was done using SIBATA High-Volume Sampler HV-1000R pump for 24 hours sampling, twice a week for 10 weeks. The primary objective of this research is to analyze the size of the suspended atmospheric microplastics at different elevation which is ground level (H1) at1.5m and upper level (H2) at 10m. The finding shows that the range size of the microplastics at H1 is between 70 to 1855 μm and H2 is 102 to 5429 μm indicate that the microplastics size at higher elevation is larger compared to the lower ground. The range abundance of microplastic is also discussed where it is between 97 to 775 particle/m2/day, with the particulate concentration ranging from 16.39 to 96.81 μg/m3/day for both locations. The EDI indicate that children are much more exposed to polymer-based MPs by dust consumption than teenagers and adults, with 4.6 particle/kg.day at H1 and 3.4 particle/kg.day at H2.