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January 22, 2026<\/p>\n
2 min read<\/p>\n
Add Us On Google<\/span>Add SciAm<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n Scientists just calculated how many microplastics are in our atmosphere. The number is absolutely shocking<\/p>\n A new estimate suggests land sources eject 600 quadrillion pieces of microplastic into the atmosphere every year<\/p>\n By K. R. Callaway edited by Claire Cameron<\/span><\/p>\n Microplastics travel by air and sea, turning up even in remote areas.<\/p>\n Ben Stansall\/Getty Images<\/p>\n Microplastics are pervasive, found everywhere on Earth, from the Sahara Desert to patches of Arctic sea ice. Yet despite these plastic particles\u2019 ubiquity, scientists have struggled to determine exactly how many of them are in our atmosphere.<\/p>\n Now a new estimate published in Nature suggests that land sources release about 600 quadrillion (600,000,000,000,000,000) microplastic particles into the atmosphere every year, about 20 times more than the number of particles contributed by oceans (about 26 quadrillion).<\/p>\n The median concentration of microplastics is 0.08 particle per cubic meter (m3) over land and 0.003 particle per m3 over sea, the study found.<\/p>\n If you’re enjoying this article, consider supporting our award-winning journalism by subscribing. By purchasing a subscription you are helping to ensure the future of impactful stories about the discoveries and ideas shaping our world today.<\/p>\n These estimates are between 100 and 10,000 times lower than previous accountings of atmospheric microplastics\u2014a discrepancy that the researchers behind the new study say underscores the need for better global measures of these pollutants.<\/p>\n \u201cWe knew that uncertainties of existing emission estimates were very large,\u201d says Andreas Stohl, senior author of the study and an atmospheric scientist at the University of Vienna. \u201cThey are even still large after our study, but we could at least narrow down the uncertainty range, especially when it comes to the importance of land-based versus ocean-based emissions.\u201d<\/p>\n A microplastic is any plastic particle sized between one micron and five millimeters. Easily swept up by wind and carried long distances by water, these tiny motes are also exceedingly difficult to detect and almost impossible to remove from the environment.<\/p>\n Past estimates have focused on accounting for microplastics generated by human activity or directly measuring their concentration in the air in any given area. But these measures are highly variable: along the southeastern coast of China, for example, atmospheric microplastic estimates have ranged from 0.004 to 190 particles per m3. To try and get at a more global estimate, Stohl and his team compiled 2,782 measurements collected at 283 locations worldwide.<\/p>\n The researchers hope the findings will act as a baseline for future studies of global microplastic levels, including new measures that will be able to account for even smaller particles than they did.<\/p>\n If you enjoyed this article, I\u2019d like to ask for your support. 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I hope it does that for you, too.<\/p>\n If you subscribe to Scientific American<\/span>, you help ensure that our coverage is centered on meaningful research and discovery; that we have the resources to report on the decisions that threaten labs across the U.S.; and that we support both budding and working scientists at a time when the value of science itself too often goes unrecognized.<\/p>\n In return, you get essential news, captivating podcasts, brilliant infographics, can’t-miss newsletters, must-watch videos, challenging games, and the science world’s best writing and reporting. You can even gift someone a subscription.<\/p>\n There has never been a more important time for us to stand up and show why science matters. I hope you\u2019ll support us in that mission.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" January 22, 2026 2 min read Add Us On GoogleAdd SciAm Scientists just calculated how many microplastics are in our atmosphere. The number is absolutely shocking A new estimate suggests land sources eject 600 quadrillion pieces of microplastic into the atmosphere every year By K. R. Callaway edited by Claire Cameron Microplastics travel by air<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":42386,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[58],"tags":[4383,12421,22354,3259,2189,384,6694],"class_list":{"0":"post-42385","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-science","8":"tag-absolutely","9":"tag-atmosphere","10":"tag-calculated","11":"tag-microplastics","12":"tag-number","13":"tag-scientists","14":"tag-shocking"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42385","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=42385"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42385\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/42386"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=42385"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=42385"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=42385"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}On supporting science journalism<\/h2>\n
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