Every breath people take in their homes or car probably contains significant amounts of microplastics small enough to burrow deep into lungs, new peer-reviewed research finds, bringing into focus a little understood route of exposure and health threat.
The study, published in the journal Plos One, estimates humans can inhale as much as 68,000 tiny plastic particles daily. Previous studies have identified larger pieces of airborne microplastics, but those are not as much of a health threat because they do not hang in the air as long, or move as deep into the pulmonary system.
The smaller bits measure between 1 and 10 micrometers, or about one-seventh the thickness of a human hair, and present more of a health threat because they can more easily be distributed throughout the body. The findings “suggest that the health impacts of microplastic inhalation may be more substantial than we realize”, the authors wrote.
“We were quite surprised about the microplastic levels we found – it was much higher than previously estimated,” said Nadiia Yakovenko, a microplastics researcher and study co-author with France’s University of Toulouse. “The size of the particle is small and well-known to transfer into tissue, which is dangerous because it can enter into the bloodstream and go deep into the respiratory system.”
Microplastics are tiny bits of plastic either intentionally added to consumer goods, or which are products of larger plastics breaking down. The particles contain any number of 16,000 plastic chemicals, of which many, such as BPA, phthalates and Pfas, present serious health risks.
The substance has been found throughout the human body, and can cross the placental and brain barriers. Food and water have been thought to be the main exposure route, but the new research highlights the risks in air pollution. Among other issues, microplastics are linked to chronic pulmonary inflammation, which can lead to lung cancer.
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The concentrations in indoor air are far higher than outdoor air, which the study’s authors say is worrying because humans spend about 90% of the day indoors. Yakovenko said the concentrations indoors are higher because it is an enclosed environment with high levels of plastic in a small area, and there is generally poor ventilation.
The study measured air in multiple rooms throughout several apartments, as well as car cabins as the authors drove. The source of the microplastics in the apartments is thought to be degrading plastic in consumer products, from clothing to kitchen goods to carpets.
Virtually any human activity will kick up the microplastics because the bits are so light. The levels were much higher in an apartment in which two people lived because of virtually any human activity that kicks up the particles. Smaller particles stay suspended in the air longer because they are lighter, Yakovenko said.
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“Any movement of air, vibrations, your movement, if you walk, sit down, stand up, if you open a window – all this is going to resuspend the particles,” Yakovenko said.
Meanwhile, the concentration of plastic in the cars’ air was about four times higher than in the apartments. Because it is a smaller enclosed environment, cars have a higher concentration of plastic, and the ventilation is not good, Yakovenko said. Researchers matched the microplastic material with that used on the dashboard, door handle, steering wheel and other components.
While it is impossible to avoid all microplastics in the air, exposures can be reduced by eliminating as much plastic from the home environment as possible – buy products made of wood, metal and natural fibers or materials.
Hepa air filtration systems have been found to be effective at removing microplastics, and Yakovenko said regular vacuuming with a Hepa vacuum and dusting can help. Reducing levels in the car is more challenging. Opening windows may ventilate a car cabin, but that could potentially allow in microplastic pollution from tires.
A town in Japan is to urge all residents to restrict their smartphone use to two hours a day in an attempt to tackle online addiction and sleep deprivation.
Officials in Toyoake, Aichi prefecture, said the measure would target not only children but also adults, amid growing concern about the physical and psychological toll excessive smartphone use is taking on people of all ages.
The move aims “to prevent excessive use of devices causing physical and mental health issues … including sleep problems,” the mayor, Masafumi Koki said recently.
The Toyoake municipal assembly began debating the non-binding ordinance this week ahead of a vote scheduled for late next month. If the draft passes it will go into effect in October. The measure will not, however, carry penalties for those who exceed the two-hour daily limit.
The draft urges primary school students – those aged six to 12 – and younger children to avoid using smartphones or tablets after 9pm, while teenagers and adults are encouraged to put their devices to one side after 10pm.
The proposal, the first of its kind to apply to all residents, triggered a backlash on social media. Some users condemned it as an attack on individual freedom, while other said the time limit was simply unworkable.
“I understand their intention, but the two-hour limit is impossible,” one user wrote on X. Another said: “Two hours isn’t even enough to read a book or watch a movie (on my smartphone).”
In response, Koki said the time limit was not mandatory and acknowledged that smartphones were “useful and indispensable in daily life”. But he added: “I hope it will be an opportunity for families to think about and discuss the time they spend on smartphones as well as the time of day the devices are used.”
The proposal has not gone down well with many of Toyoake’s 69,000 residents. Officials received 83 phone calls and 44 emails over a four-day period after the announcement, 80% of which were critical of the measure, according to the Mainichi Shimbun newspaper.
Officials say the proposal was designed to address behavioural problems associated with excessive smartphone use, including truancy among children who can’t bear to leave their phones at home when they go to school.
Koki said there was also anecdotal evidence that adults in the town were glued to their phones when they should be sleeping or spending time with their families.
Toyoake’s initiative reflects growing concern about the negative health impact, especially on children, of hours spent hunched over smartphones and tablets.
In 2020, a region in western Japan passed an ordinance – also non-binding – limiting children to an hour a day of gaming during the week, rising to 90 minutes during the school holidays.
Young Japanese spend an average of just over five hours a day online on weekdays, according to a survey released this year by the Children and Families Agency.
The FBI is investigating Wednesday’s attack at Annunciation Catholic Church in Minneapolis as a hate crime and an act of domestic terrorism, officials said after the shooting, which left two children dead.
A shooter, identified as 23-year-old Robin Westman, opened fire through the windows of the church, hitting children and worshippers attending Mass inside. Two children, ages 8 and 10, were fatally shot. Fifteen children, ages 6 to 15, and three parishioners in their 80s were wounded by gunfire. On Thursday, city officials identified another shooting victim, bringing the total number of those injured to 18.
Authorities said the shooter used a rifle, a shotgun and a pistol to open fire into the pews. Westman, who died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound, purchased the weapons used in Wednesday’s shooting legally, authorities said.
The FBI is now investigating the shooting as a hate crime and an act of domestic terrorism targeting Catholics. Police said that Westman created a manifesto with disturbing writings and timed it to appear on Wednesday on YouTube, but noted they hadn’t yet found a motive or relationship between the shooter and the church.
“The sheer cruelty and cowardice of firing into a church full of children is absolutely incomprehensible,” O’Hara said Wednesday, calling the attack a “deliberate act of violence against innocent children and other people worshipping.”
Israeli drone strikes near Damascus have killed six Syrian soldiers, Syria’s government said, among a series of reported attacks this week.
Syria’s foreign ministry condemned Tuesday’s strike as a violation of international law and a breach of its sovereignty.
After more strikes on Wednesday, Israeli forces carried out an airborne landing at a former military site in the area, international and Syrian state media report. Reports differ on what forces did and how long they stayed for.
Israel’s military told the BBC it did not comment on foreign reports. Defence Minister Israel Katz posted on X on Thursday that “forces are operating in all combat zones day and night for the security of Israel”.
Israel carried out dozens of attacks across Syria after the fall of ex-President Bashar al-Assad in December, which saw an Islamist-led government set up by former rebels. Israel at the time said it was acting to stop weapons falling “into the hands of extremists”.
This year, Israel has conducted 95 attacks – 85 air strikes and 10 land operations – according to British-based monitor Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR).
Tuesday’s attack happened while Syrian troops were attempting to deal with “surveillance and eavesdropping devices” discovered during a field tour near al-Kiswah, Syrian Arab News Agency (SANA) reports.
Further air strikes followed on Wednesday, taking place around 10km (six miles) from where Syria’s interim President Ahmed al-Sharaa was attending the Damascus International Fair, SOHR reported.
Few details were available on the landing by Israeli forces at the former military site, which was reported on Wednesday night.
SANA reported that Israeli aircraft launched several raids, followed by an airdrop, “the details of which are yet to be determined”.
A Syrian military source told Al Jazeera the operation included dozens of soldiers with search equipment who stayed at the site for more than two hours.
Two Syrian army sources told Reuters that troops conducted the landing, but withdrew after, with no more details.
The reported series of attacks this week comes as the two countries engage in deconfliction talks.
In July, Israel bombed Syrian government forces around Suweida in the country’s south as the army entered the predominantly Druze city following deadly sectarian clashes.
Israel’s prime minister said he had ordered strikes on forces and weapons because the government “intended to use [them] against the Druze”. Syria condemned the July attacks, which it said had resulted in deaths of members of the armed forces and civilians.
There is also a population of Druze, whose religion is an offshoot of Shia Islam with its own unique identity and beliefs, in Israel.
BEIJING — North Korean leader Kim Jong Un will make his first visit to China in six years to attend a military parade next week, the two countries said Thursday, in an event that would bring him together with a large group of world leaders for the first time since taking office in late 2011.
With Russian President Vladimir Putin also coming for the parade, the event will underline the three-way alignment among Beijing, Moscow and Pyongyang in the face of a U.S. push to bolster its alliances with South Korea and Japan.
North Korea’s state media said Kim was invited to visit China by President Xi Jinping. Kim will be among 26 foreign leaders who attend next Wednesday’s parade in Beijing to mark the 80th anniversary of the end of World War II and China’s resistance against Japan’s wartime aggressions, China’s foreign ministry said.
“We warmly welcome General Secretary Kim Jong Un to China to attend the commemorative events,” Hong Lei, China’s assistant minister of foreign affairs, told a press conference. “Upholding, consolidating and developing the traditional friendship between China and the DPRK is a firm position of the Communist Party of China and the Chinese government.”
DPRK refers to the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, North Korea’s official name.
Since inheriting power upon his father’s death in December 2011, Kim has met Xi, Putin, U.S. President Donald Trump, former South Korean President Moon Jae-in and others. But all those summits were bilateral meetings and Kim hasn’t attended any big multilateral events with foreign leaders.
“Given that other leaders attending are mostly from pro-Russia and pro-Chinese countries, Kim likely intends to form solidarity with those Global South countries while showing he’s leader of a normal country,” said Moon Seong Mook, an analyst for the Seoul-based Korea Research Institute for National Strategy.
Observers say Kim is likely emboldened by his country’s expanding cooperation with Russia, which has helped him bear the brunt of U.S.-led sanctions and break out of diplomatic isolation. North Korea has been supplying troops and ammunition to support Russia’s war against Ukraine in return for economic and military assistance.
Others coming for the parade include the leaders of Iran, Belarus, Serbia, Cuba, Indonesia, Myanmar, Pakistan and Malaysia. No leaders from major Western countries including the U.S. are expected to attend, in part because of their differences with Putin over the war in Ukraine. The parade is expected to feature some of China’s newest weaponry and a speech by Xi.
China, North Korea and Russia are embroiled in separate confrontations with the U.S., but they haven’t formed a clear three-way alliance so far.
Xi, Putin and Kim haven’t met in trilateral formats, though they’ve met one another bilaterally.
“Kim’s attendance is significant for his own international stature, but it also holds weight in the balance of alliances between the U.S. and China,” said Soo Kim, a former CIA analyst. “Xi, Putin, and now Kim attending the parade cements a visible statement about the alignment between the three countries.”
The three leaders likely share desires to check the strengthening cooperation among the U.S., South Korea and Japan, which have been meeting regularly and expanding trilateral military exercises. Despite their shared goals, it’s not clear how far China, North Korea and Russia will go to further cement ties.
China remains the largest purchaser of Russian oil and technology provider supporting the Russian war machine, though it is officially neutral in the conflict.
China has also long been North Korea’s biggest trading partner and main aid provider, but there have been questions about their relations in recent years. Chinese group tours to North Korea have remained suspended for years.
Kim’s visit to China could also be related to efforts to restart diplomacy with Trump, who has repeatedly highlighted his relationship with Kim and expressed his hopes to resume talks.
In all, Kim traveled to China four times from 2018 to 2019 to meet Xi. His first and fourth visits happened just before he met Trump for their earlier high-stakes nuclear negotiations.
“Pyongyang’s illicit cooperation with Moscow has strained ties with Beijing, even as China’s political and economic support remains vital for the North Korean regime,” said Leif-Eric Easley, professor of international studies at Ewha Womans University in Seoul.
“To reengage Trump from a position of strength, Kim seeks to repair relations with Xi, and attending the parade in Beijing is a highly visible way of doing that,” Easley said.
During a meeting with South Korean President Lee Jae Myung in Washington earlier this week, Trump spoke of one of his past summits with Kim at the Korean Demilitarized Zone. Responding to a question over whether he would return to the Demilitarized Zone, Trump told reporters, “I loved it. Remember when I walked across the line and everyone went crazy.”
North Korea has so far dismissed Trump’s outreach, but many analysts say it would return to talks if it determines the U.S. would make bigger concessions.
While Kim’s foreign policy priority is Russia now, many observers expect him to take steps to improve ties with China. It’s unclear if North Korea and Russia would maintain the same level of cooperation after Ukraine war ends.
In 2023, about 97% of North Korea’s external trade was with China, while 1.2% was with Russia, according to Chinese data.
Cheong Seong-Chang, deputy head of private Sejong Institute in South Korea, said Kim likely decided to go to China to ask for assistance as North Korea needs resources for lavish celebrations of two domestic events — the 80th anniversary of the ruling Workers’ Party in October and a party congress early next year.
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Kim reported from Seoul, South Korea. Christopher Bodeen in Taipei, Taiwan contributed to this report.
SEVEN YEARS have passed since Narendra Modi last set foot in China. The clock resets on August 31st, when India’s prime minister turns up in Tianjin, a port city about two hours from Beijing. Mr Modi will attend a meeting of the Shanghai Co-operation Organisation (SCO), a Eurasian security outfit whose members include Russia and Iran; there he is expected to meet Xi Jinping, China’s president. The trip is a striking example of the improving ties between India and China, which entered a deep freeze in 2020 following a border clash. But Mr Modi’s mind will also be on his country’s bust-up with America and how India should respond.
