Environmental Pollution 308 (2022) 119707

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Environmental Pollution
journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/envpol

Airborne microplastic particle concentrations and characterization in

indoor urban microenvironments☆
A. Torres-Agullo, A. Karanasiou *, T. Moreno, S. Lacorte
Institute of Environmental Assessment and Water Research of the Spanish Research Council (IDAEA-CSIC), Jordi Girona 18-26, 08034, Barcelona, Spain

A R T I C L E I N F O A B S T R A C T

Keywords: Airborne microplastics (MPs) have recently drawn the attention of the scientific community due to their possible
Indoor air human inhalation risk. Indoor environments are of relevance as people spend about 90% of their time indoors.
Airborne fibres This study evaluated MPs concentrations in three indoor environments: houses, public transport and working
Air pollution
places, which are representative of urban life. Sampling involved the collection of airborne particulate matter on
Particulate matter
Personal exposure
nylon 20 μm pore size filters. Samples were first visually inspected, and particles were characterized (colour,
Inhalation dose length or area). Polymer identification was performed through μFTIR analysis. Working conditions were
controlled to guarantee quality assurance and avoid background contamination. Limits of detection, recovery
tests and repeatability were performed with home-made polyethylene (PE), polypropylene (PP), and polystyrene
(PS) standards. The highest average MP concentrations were found in buses (17.3 ± 2.4 MPs/m3) followed by 5.8
± 1.9 MPs/m3 in subways, 4.8 ± 1.6 MPs/m3 in houses, and 4.2 ± 1.6 MPs/m3 in the workplaces. Polyamide, PA
(51%), polyester PES (48%) and PP (1%) were the polymers identified and most common in personal care
products and synthetic textiles. Most of these polymers were below 100 μm in size for both fibres (64 ± 8%) and
fragments (78 ± 11%). The frequency of MP particles in our study decreased with increasing size, which points
to their potential as an inhalation hazard.

1. Introduction
Heterogeneous plastic particles <5 mm in length known as micro­
plastics (MPs), are considered emerging contaminants with possible
potential risks for human health (Prata, 2018; Torres-Agullo et al.,
2021). There are two main MPs categories: plastic particles directly
emitted in the size range of <5 mm known as ‘primary microplastics’
and plastic litter that undergo weathering and break down to smaller
fragments referred as ‘secondary microplastics’ (GESAMP, 2015).
Numerous studies have investigated the presence of microplastics in
marine environments, freshwater systems, and terrestrial environments
(Alfaro-Nuñez et al., 2021; Staton et al., 2020; Dobaradaran et al., 2018;
Van Cauwenberghe et al., 2013) including remote areas (Lusher et al.,
2015; Napper et al., 2020). Recently, it has also been demonstrated the
presence of MPs in the atmospheric compartment, including both out­
door (Dris et al., 2017; Klein and Fischer, 2019; Akhbarizadeh et al.,
2021) and indoor air (Zhang et al., 2020; Kashfi et al., 2022; Sadat et al.,
2022). Therefore, if small enough, airborne MPs will be continuously
inhaled and uptaken into the human body (Prata, 2018), an evident
proof is that lung tissue presented MPs in 50% of the samples analyzed
(Amato-Lourenço et al., 2021). Once in the organism, inflammatory
lesions may be caused by interconnected mechanisms such as dust
overload, oxidative stress, cytotoxicity, and translocation, all of which
are mechanisms directly related to cancer (Prata, 2018). In addition,
MPs can act as vectors for toxic trace elements in the environment such
as heavy metals or organic pollutants and thus cause further health ef­
fects (Bradney et al., 2019; Razegheh et al., 2021).
Several sources can contribute to the release of MPs into the air,
including ordinary consumer products and personal care products,
synthetic textiles, engineered plastic pellets, 3D printing, landfills and
resuspended urban dust among others (Bergmann et al., 2015; Boucher
and Friot, 2017). In urban environments, oad traffic can be an important
source of airborne MPs (Evangeliou et al., 2020; Järlskog et al., 2021;
Kole et al., 2017; Sommer et al., 2018). including abrasion of tyre rub­
ber, asphalt and road markings (e.g. paint), (Andersson-Sköld et al.,
2020). Under the context of the COVID-19 pandemic single use face
masks and other types of personal protective equipment (PPE) could be a
potential source of microplastics to the environment (Pizarro-Ortega
et al., 2022; De-la-Torre et al., 2022; Fernández-Arribas et al., 2021;

☆
This paper has been recommended for acceptance by Eddy Y. Zeng.
* Corresponding author.
E-mail address: angeliki.karanasiou@idaea.csic.es (A. Karanasiou).

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envpol.2022.119707
Received 12 March 2022; Received in revised form 22 June 2022; Accepted 30 June 2022
Available online 5 July 2022
0269-7491/© 2022 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-
nc-nd/4.0/).
A. Torres-Agullo et al. Environmental Pollution 308 (2022) 119707

provided. To the best of our knowledge, it is the first time that the
Abbreviation and acronyms presence of airborne MPs is investigated in the public transport system
and the inhalation dose is estimated. In this study, special attention was
ADT Average daily traffic given to quality control and quality assurance to mitigate risk of external
CaF2 Calcium fluoride and cross contamination.
COVID-19 Coronavirus disease
FTIR Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy 2. Materials and methods
LOD Limit of detection
MCT Mercury Cadmium Telluride 2.1. Study area
MPs Microplastics
PA Polyamide This study was performed within the Barcelona urban area which is
PE Polyethylene located in the north eastern coast of Spain with a population about 1.6
PES Polyester million (INE, 2020). The city itself covers 98.21 km2, giving an average
PP Polypropylene population density of 16,503 habitants per km2, making Barcelona one
PPE Personal protection equipment of the most densely populated cities in Europe (INE, 2020). A total of 15
PS Polystyrene samples (Table 1) in different indoor environments (houses, buses,
RSD Relative standard deviation subway, working place) were collected in the period February–March
VPD Vehicles per day 2021.
VE Minute ventilation The subway of Barcelona city is an electrified railway network
operating since 1924. Three subway lines namely L1 (Hospital de Bell­
vitge – Fondo), L3 (Zona Universitària - Trinitat Nova) and L5 (Cornellà
Centre – Vall d’ Hebron) were assessed. Line L1 (operating since 1926) is
Torres-Agullo et al., 2021). the longest route in Barcelona with 21 km and 30 stations. Line L3
Higher concentrations of MPs are present in in indoor air than out­ (1924) and line L5 (1959) each include 26 stations and are 19 km long.
doors (Dris et al., 2017), creating an increased concern as people spend According to public data, 218 million journeys took place on 2020
an average 70–90% of their time inside. In indoor environments, MPs (InfoTMB, 2021).
behaviour is governed by room distribution, ventilation and airflows The local and interurban Barcelona bus network with over 100 lines
(Prata, 2018). Therefore, low rates of air renovation generally result in was also evaluated. Lines 7 (Fòrum - Zona Universitària, length 10.2
high concentrations of indoor MPs. The main source of MPs in indoor air km), 33 (Zona Universitària – Verneda, length 7.9 km) and 63 (Pl.
is considered to be synthetic textiles given that small fibres easily tear Universitat - Sant Joan Despí, length 10.6 km) were chosen for this study
from clothes and other fibre products during wearing, cleaning and covering some of the busiest and most central streets of Barcelona such
drying (Chen et al., 2020; Dris et al., 2017; Liu et al., 2019; O’ Brien as Diagonal, Aragó and Gran Via de les Corts Catalanes. Measured as
et al., 2020). Polysterene (PS), polyethylene (PE), polyester (PES), average daily traffic (ADT), these streets were the most transited in
polypropylene (PP) and polyamide (PA) seem to be the most abundant Barcelona in 2018 (Aragó: 84,600 vehicles per day (VPD), Diagonal:
polymers (Wright et al., 2020; Dris et al., 2017; Zhang et al., 2020). 63,400 VPD, and Gran Via de les Corts Catalanes: 59,000 VPD) (Bar­
Available information suggests that inhalation is one of the major celona City Council, 2020). Fig. 1 shows the routes of each public
sources of MP exposure (Cox et al., 2019; Kannan et al., 2021). Never­ transport studied. About 350,000 people use Barcelona bus lines weekly
theless, little information is available about airborne MPs in different (InfoTMB, 2021). In the subway and buses sampling was conducted in
indoor environments and risks from inhalation. the middle vagon and approximately in the middle of the bus. Passen­
The objectives of the present study were to determine the presence of gers were homogeneously distributed inside the subway vagons and
MPs in indoor atmospheres in an urban area (Barcelona) influenced by buses, thus we considered that the selected sampling points were
dense urbanization and emissions from traffic. Different micro- representative of the overall conditions. Numbers of passengers signif­
environments were evaluated including houses, public transport icantly vary during the day with morning and afternoon hours and also
(buses and subway) and working places. Physical characteristics, poly­ between different stations. For this reason, we conducted sampling
mer type and concentration of MP were determined using a stereomi­ during the morning rush hours and we recorded the number of pas­
croscope and Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FTIR). An sengers in each station and bus stop. In Table 1 we provide the range of
estimation of the inhaled MPs in the different microenvironments is also number of passengers during sampling. Private houses situated at

Table 1
List of samples, codification, and location.
Sampling Site Identification Location Floor Building/line date Number of people Volume (m3)/Area (m2)

Subway car S1 Line 1 Undergr. 1926 5–42 450

Subway car S2 Line 3 Undergr. 1924 10–38 450
Subway car S3 Line 5 Undergr. 1959 5–46 450
Bus B1 Line 7 – – 4–31 99 m3
Bus B2 Line 33 – – 5–28 99 m3
Bus B3 Line 63 – – 3–32 66 m3
House H1 Les Corts 4th 1962 4 105 m2
House H2 El Fort Pienc 3rd 1900 1 87 m2
House H3 Sarrià 4th 1980 5 107 m2
House H4 El Born 1st 1887 4 147 m2
House H5 Gràcia 10th 1975 4 70 m2
House H6 Sant Andreu 4th 1936 2 55 m2
IDAEA-CSIC IC1 Informatic Service 1st 1967 3a 24 m2
IDAEA-CSIC IC2 Storehouse ground 1967 4a 85 m2
IDAEA-CSIC IC3 Laboratory ground 2007 2a 62 m2
a
Minimum and permanent number of people working in the room during the day.

2
A. Torres-Agullo et al.
Fig. 1. On the left side, itinerary of the different subway lines evaluated: L1 (red), L3 (green), and L5 (blue). To the right, bus routes evaluated: 7 (blue), 33 (red), and
63 (purple). All lines pass through Barcelona’s city centre. (For interpretation of the references to colour in this figure legend, the reader is referred to the Web
version of this article.)
different districts of the urban area and highly influenced by traffic
emissions were also sampled, and specific characteristics are indicated
in Table 1. Samples were taken at the living rooms where furniture as
carpets, sofas, or curtains where present in all the cases. The final
sampling was done in the premises of the Institute of Environmental
Assessment and Water Research (IDAEA-CSIC), which is influenced by
road traffic emissions from the Diagonal Avenue located at 300 m. Three
different sampling sites were chosen within the Institute: the storehouse,
informatics service room and one laboratory. The storehouse is situated
on the ground floor of the building and contains all the purchased lab
material of IDAEA-CSIC, with high affluence of people and goods.
Informatics service stores personal computers and other electronic de­
vices to be repaired. Finally, the selected laboratory contains gas and
liquid chromatography equipment. All the IDAEA-CSIC sampling sites
have high affluence of people.
2.2. Sampling
Total airborne particulates were collected using a 25 mm filter
holder (Merck MAWP025AC, Merck Millipore, USA) connected to a
Leland Legacy air sampling pump (SKC, UK) with an intake flow rate
previously calibrated of 10.0 ± 0.1 L/min. Nylon net filters (20 μm pore
size, hydrophilic membrane, 25 mm diameter, Sigma Aldrich, USA)
were placed in the filter holder and sampling duration ranged from 1.5
to 3 h depending on the sampling site. The lowest sampling time was
performed while traveling in the public transport due to higher particle
levels. The filtering unit was placed at a height of about 70–75 cm above
the ground, corresponding to the height of a desktop/table available in
the houses and offices were sampling took place. Inside buses and sub­
way trains the sampling height corresponded to the height of the pas­
senger seat. All stances were used with normality during sampling.
Afterwards, filters were carefully removed using stainless steel
tweezers and transferred to precleaned round glass Petri dishes, which
were preserved closed and covered with aluminium foil until the anal­
ysis. To eliminate possible microplastics adhered to the used material (e.
g., Petri dishes, tweezers, filter holder), all material was previously
rinsed in triplicate with a mixture of ethanol – MilliQ water (30/70 v/v).
2.3. Visual observation
Filters were carefully inspected and photographed using a
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Environmental Pollution 308 (2022) 119707
stereomicroscope (Leica S9i, Germany) equipped with a 10 MP CMOS-
camera which provides HD-microscope images live streamed to the PC
monitor. The highest magnification (55x) was used to facilitate the
identification of small/transparent particles. Once photographs were
taken, particles were manually counted. Colour, length, perimeter, and
area were the different parameters measured in each particle during the
filter inspection.
2.4. μFTIR analysis
A Micro Fourier Transform Infrared Spectrometer, μFTIR (Thermo
Scientific Nicolet iN10 MX, USA) equipped with a mercury cadmium
telluride (MCT) detector was used to determine chemical composition of
particles and fibres. The spectral range was set from 800 to 4000 cm− 1,
performing 64 scans per sample at a resolution of 4 cm− 1. Nylon filters as
those used in the sampling process generate strong IR signals, so samples
could not be directly analyzed on the original filters. Therefore, ultra-
high precision material (tweezer, punch and needle) helped to remove
fibres and fragments from the original filter and relocated them to a
calcium fluoride (CaF2) support plate suitable for the analysis. The latter
is a critical step in the method. Removing MPs from the filter is a time-
consuming and laborious process and particles could be lost during the
process. From the total particle number registered in each sample, >80%
particles (plastic and no plastic) were successfully transferred to the
CaF2 substrate to be analyzed. The remaining 20% were particles too
small to be collected manually.
2.5. Quality control parameters and background contamination
Protocols to control external contamination were established. Air
deposition controls (n = 4) were conducted by leaving clean filters in a
closed Petri dish that was open only when the filters were processed with
the stereomicroscope for 1 h, corresponding approximately to the pro­
cessing time of each sample. Procedural blanks were conducted aspi­
rating during 3 h inside of a Petri dish previously triple rinsed with a
mixture of ethanol - MilliQ water (30/70). The limit of detection (LOD)
was considered during this study as the 3sb criteria, where sb corre­
sponded to the standard deviation of blanks (n = 4).
Recovery tests (n = 4) were performed using home-made MP stan­
dards of PE (blue), PP (black) and PS (light pink) (from 0.05 to 0.3 mm)
at two different weights (5 and 10 μg). The particle number in each
A. Torres-Agullo et al.
standard was previously calculated in the lab. Each known amount of
standard material was individually weighted on a large Petri dish,
aspirated using the vacuum pump and collected in nylon filters. As
described before, particles were visually inspected and counted using a
Leica S9i stereomicroscope before and after aspiration. Finally, repeat­
ability (n = 4) of this procedure was calculated as relative standard
deviation (RSD).
Five precautions were taken in the present work to prevent external
contamination and reduce cross contamination: (1) the use of cotton lab
coats and nitrile gloves during sample manipulation and analysis was
mandatory to prevent the release of fibres from clothes, (2) only glass
and metal material have been used during this research, (3) all material
was triple rinsed with a mixture of ethanol – MilliQ water (30/70) to
remove possible adhering plastics and there were cleaning steps be­
tween samples to avoid cross contamination, (4) petri-dishes were kept
covered after initial sampling with aluminium foil caps (except for im­
aging and characterization) to minimize air contamination, (5) work­
space was a room (surfaces were daily wiped with ethanol) with
controlled access and ventilation (microscope and FTIR rooms). An
automatic counting method was developed using the microscope’s
software.
2.6. Statistical analysis
SPSS Statistics 25.0 (IBM, New York, USA) software conducted sta­
tistical analysis of the data. One-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) plus
Tukey post-hoc for paired comparisons tested variability between
groups. Each group was defined to the different sampling sites: public
transport, houses, and IDAEA-CSIC Institute. P < 0.05 was considered to
be statistically significant. Work data (total particles and total MPs) was
reported as mean of MPs/m3 ± SD for each type of indoor environment.
Fig. 2. Photographs of standard particles: PE (A), PP (B), and PS (C). Colour differences between standard materials influence on the visual recount and identifi­
cation. (For interpretation of the references to colour in this figure legend, the reader is referred to the Web version of this article.)
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Environmental Pollution 308 (2022) 119707
3. Results and discussion
3.1. Method performance and quality control parameters
The first step was to determine the recoveries, sensitivity, and blank
contribution of the method in a quantitative way. The results of the
recovery tests are given in the supplementary information (Table S1). It
was observed that average recoveries slightly decreased with increasing
weight. Mean recoveries were 95% and 94% for PE, 97% and 91% for PP
and 84% and 78% for PS at 5 μg and 10 μg respectively. In contrast with
PE (intense blue) and PP (black), PS (light pink) was extremely difficult
to distinguish in the filter which could result in the lower recoveries
found (Fig. 2).
Blanks from air deposition controls (n = 4) presented a median
contamination value of 2 particles (1.8 ± 0.5) per 49.09 cm2 (filter
area). No fragments were found in these blanks, and it is worth
mentioning that only black and transparent fibres were found, being
black the predominant colour (71%). Instead, procedural blanks (n = 4)
show a higher median contamination of 12.5 (13 ± 1) particles m− 3
corresponding to median values of 7 (7.0 ± 0.8) fibres/m3 and 5 (5.8 ±
1.5) fragments m− 3. Fibres represented 55% of the total particle number
with a size ranging from 43 to 4436 μm. Black was also the predominant
colour both in fibres (61%) and fragments (43%). However, a higher
colour variability than in air deposition controls was found: colourless
(17%), grey (14%), blue (4%), and yellow (4%) in fibres and orange
(13%), yellow (13%), brown (9%), grey (9%), transparent (9%), and
brown (4%) in fragments. After μFTIR characterization, no MPs were
found in any of the blanks meaning that the procedure was not exter­
nally contaminated by MPs as only cellulose fibres were identified.
Prata et al. (2021) defined 10 key parameters to prevent air
contamination and most of them were adopted in this investigation.
Different studies show that air flow’s control can reduce air contami­
nation up to 50% (Torre et al., 2016; Wesch et al., 2017). In the present
study, the working conditions did not produce any external contami­
nation of the samples. Some authors also report the importance of
pre-filtrate all working solutions because contamination of reagents can
A. Torres-Agullo et al.
lead to overestimation of MPs concentration. Contamination of water
increases with reducing filters pore size because of the abundance of
small particles. Milli-Q water specifications report 0.22 < partic­
ulate⋅mL− 1 in sizes <1 μm (Prata et al., 2021). The use of 20 μm pore size
filters during this study makes unnecessary a pre-filtration of the
working solutions. Filters choice should be coherent with the visual and
instrumental detection limits of the study. In this case, a lower pore size
filter would trap very small particles with high organic matter load
which would make identification difficult, and a higher pore size would
lead to an underestimation of the smallest MPs. Moreover, nylon was
chosen as ideal material due to its lattice knitting structure which pro­
vides almost perfect retentions for MPs (Cai et al., 2020).
3.2. Visual observation: general shape, size and colour distribution of
airborne particles
When sampling air particles, the majority of the collected mass (e.
g.> 60%) is organic material. Discrimination of MPs from the organic
matrix through visual observation highly increases the risk of misiden­
tification and underestimation, especially when dealing with small sizes
(Bergmann et al., 2015). To be classified as MP, most authors follow the
criteria proposed by Norén (2007): (1) absence of organic or cellular
structure, (2) equal thickness along the entire fibre’s length, (3) 3D
bending (straight forms could indicate a biological origin), (4) particles
homogeneously coloured, (5) careful study of transparent particles.
These guidelines help to standardize the identification of MPs, but there
are many other parameters that influence the quality of the results such
as subjectivity of the examiner, microscope technical specifications or
shapes, colours and sizes (Chen et al., 2020; Primpke et al., 2020). To
minimize misidentification, a total particle recount (fibres and frag­
ments without considering their origin) was first undertaken (Fig. 3).
Total length (fibres), widest side, perimeter, and area (fragments) were
measured during visual characterization. Fig. 4 shows the shape distri­
bution (fibres-fragments) of the different samples (public transport,
Fig. 3. Example of fibres (blue arrow) and particles (red arrow) found in air samples (sample B3). (For interpretation of the references to colour in this figure legend,
the reader is referred to the Web version of this article.)
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Environmental Pollution 308 (2022) 119707
houses and working places). Fibres were the clear dominant shape with
an average percentage of 73 ± 9% of the total particles in public
transport, 81 ± 4% in houses and 53 ± 24% in working rooms in the
IDAEA-CSIC. No significant differences (p-value = 0.020) were found
between different indoor environments (houses, working rooms and
public transport). Vianello et al. (2019) and Liao et al. (2021) found high
percentages of fragments >80% in apartments located in Denmark and
China respectively, while Dris et al. (2017) nearly identified only fibres
in apartments located in the city of Paris. Similarly, microplastic fallout
existed mostly in the form of fibers in different university locations
(dormitories, office and lecture building) in Shanghai, China (Zhang
et al., 2020).
A range of 26–161 particles (both fibres and fragments) were
detected per sample. Fibres and fragments were classified according to
their size (Table S2 in supplement). Shape distribution of particles in
indoor studies varied greatly. During this study, fibres observed ranged
from 20 to 23,565 μm and fibres under 20 μm were not considered due to
visual observation limitation and FTIR lower limit. Only 6 fibres (0.84%)
were above 5 mm, so they could not be considered as potential micro­
plastics. Their presence was attributed to resuspension by airflows
(natural or artificial origin) or some human activities. For example,
walking over a carpet could resuspend around 0–40% of the deposited
particles (Rosati et al., 2008).
Fibres <100 μm represented the most abundant size range. In houses
and public transport, the <100 μm fraction represented 27 ± 9% and 29
± 7%, while in the working rooms in IDAEA-CSIC institute reached 70
± 15% of the total MP number. Between groups, only the IDAEA-CSIC
size range <100 μm presented significant differences (p-value <
0.001) from the rest. Relative abundance of fibres decreases with
increasing size (Fig. 5A). This pattern is reported in most indoor airborne
MPs studies (Dris et al., 2017; Liao et al., 2021; Vianello et al., 2019).
Predominant size range differs between studies indicating that size
distribution depends on different factors such as sampling site, sampling
method, identification method, or visual detection limit, among others
A. Torres-Agullo et al.
Fig. 4. Relative abundance of fibres (blue) and fragments (orange) per sample: S1 – S3 samples correspond to subways, B1 – B3 to buses, H1 – H6 to houses, and IC1
– IC3 to working rooms. (For interpretation of the references to colour in this figure legend, the reader is referred to the Web version of this article.)
(Hartmann et al., 2019).
Fragments were evaluated according to their perimeter and widest
side. The smallest fragment had a 22 μm perimeter, while the largest one
was 1462 μm. In houses and working rooms in IDAEA-CSIC Institute,
most fragments were in the <100 μm range (perimeter) (44 ± 28%, 57
± 12%), while in transport the major region was from 100 to 200 μm (52
± 21%) (Fig. 5B). In this case, relative abundance of fragments in the
100–200 μm region was 68 ± 8% in buses and 35 ± 15% in subways.
However, statistical analysis shows that no significant differences were
found between group’s fragment distribution in ranges (p-values ≥
0.075).
Similar to fibres, fragments frequency decreases with increasing size,
Fig. 5. This could be due to the high amount of small fragment sources
concentrated in indoor air such as plastic packaging (Sobhani et al.,
2020) or 3D printing (Zhang et al., 2017), which would explain the
differences found among houses, working rooms and transport distri­
bution. It is worth mentioning that the occurrence of fibers <100 μm in
the working rooms of IDAEA-CSIC institute was higher than in houses
and public transport. We believe that activities carried out in the storage
room and in the laboratory including packaging and handling of labo­
ratory material might emit microplastics from the abrasion of plastic
packages and synthetic textiles.
A huge variety of colours was observed in samples. Particles were
classified as black, colourless, brown, red, purple, blue, grey, yellow,
orange, green, pink, golden, or silver. A total of 12 different colours were
found in fibres, while 10 were identified in fragments. Black was the
predominant colour for fibres in 8 out of the 15 samples, with relative
frequency of 27%, although high percentages of blue (23%), grey (17%),
colourless (10%) and brown (9%) were also found. Equally, the pre­
dominant colour in fragments was black (31%), followed at some dis­
tance by brown (23%), colourless (11%), blue (10%) and yellow (8%).
According to statistical analysis, predominant colours in fibres (black,
blue, grey and colourless) do not present significant differences between
groups (p-values ≥ 0.073). Likewise, differences at predominant frag­
ment colours (black, brown, colourless and blue) between groups are not
significant (p-values ≥ 0.014). Our observed colour data fairly agrees
with previous investigations where black and blue were also the domi­
nant colours (Gaston et al., 2020; Liu et al., 2019). However, there are
other studies where light colours were the most abundant (Prata et al.,
2020). Colour distribution could be influenced by season of the year:
Prata et al. (2020) conducted their study during September, while
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Environmental Pollution 308 (2022) 119707
studies where dark colours dominated were conducted during Januar­
y–March (Gaston et al., 2020), May (Liu et al., 2019) and the current
study in February–March 2021. Several factors influence on the colour
distributions reported (e.g., sampling room or its furniture), but in
principle during winter (from December to March) people tend to wear
darker clothes than in summer (June–September).
3.2.1. MPs concentration and chemical composition
FTIR analysis was performed to identify chemical composition of
individual particles. Natural fibres (cellulose, cellulose + indigo, cellu­
lose + amide) comprised the most abundant fraction identified (65%),
followed by MPs (16%), other materials (e.g., oil, carbonate or talc; 7%),
and unidentified particles (11%). These non-identified particles were
consequence of the μFTIR detection limit and, also, of the presence of
organic matter on the sample filter. Only PES, PA, and PP were identified
in the samples (Fig. 6). These polymers originate from synthetic textiles,
personal care products, packaging of consumer products and from tyres
and brake systems. Table S3 in the Supplementary information sum­
marizes MPs characteristics in each sample. PA was the most common
polymer (51%), nearly followed by PES (48%). Only 1 fibre of PP (1%)
was found in one of the subway trains evaluated (S-2). The composition
of MPs found in this study is comparable to some previous studies where
PES was the most abundant polymer in private apartments (Liao et al.,
2021; Vianello et al., 2019; Zhang et al., 2020). However, a study con­
ducted inside laboratories and libraries in California (Gaston et al.,
2020) found PS as the most common polymer whereas a study in Paris
reported PP in private apartments as the most common one (Dris et al.,
2017). Comparison of these data should consider different parameters in
the room where sampling was undertaken such as human activity or
furniture. As it is obvious, furniture and daily human activities are
different in each location.
Overall average MPs concentrations found were 5.8 ± 1.9 MP m− 3 in
subways, 17.3 ± 2.4 MP m− 3 in buses, 4.8 ± 1.6 MP m− 3 in houses, and
4.2 ± 1.6 MP m− 3 in the IDAEA-CSIC Institute. According to the Tukey
statistical test, MPs concentration in buses is significantly different from
the rest of micro-environments (p-value < 0.001). Buses and subways
are often crowded during most of the day which means that there are
many fibres and particles sourcing from synthetic textiles, so similar
concentration levels were expected. However, higher MP concentrations
were observed in buses compared to the subway. A factor that could
influence the difference in MPs concentration between buses and
A. Torres-Agullo et al. Environmental Pollution 308 (2022) 119707

Fig. 5. Fibres (A) and fragments (B) distribution in size range of the different indoor environments. Error bars correspond to the standard deviation.

Fig. 6. Colourless fibres from the central image (A) were identified as PES (sample H5). On the top-right side of the image (B) a PA fragment is shown (sample H1).

7
A. Torres-Agullo et al.
subway wagons is the air conditioning system that was operating in the
subway network throughout the COVID-19 pandemia. This system is
continuously exchanging air between the indoor and outside of the
wagon renewing the whole atmosphere every 2.5 min (InfoTMB, 2021;
Olivero-Verbel et al., 2021). It is worth mentioning that the occurrence
of fibers <100 μm in the working areas of IDAEA-CSIC institute was
higher than in houses and public transport. We believe that activities
carried out in the storage room and in the laboratories including pack­
aging and handling of laboratory material might emit MPs from the
abrasion of plastic packages and synthetic textiles.
The indoor concentrations observed in our study are consistent with
some previous studies, for example 5.4 fibres m− 3 (Dris et al., 2017)
were reported at Parisian apartments, whereas other studies have re­
ported higher MPs concentrations: 9.3 ± 5.8 MP m− 3 (Vianello et al.,
2019) or 12 MP m− 3 (Prata et al., 2020) in Danish and Portuguese res­
idences. We did not observe exceptionally high values as the ones found
in a study conducted in China, where a median value of 1583 ± 1181
MP m− 3 (Liao et al., 2021) was reported from a range of different
sampling sites such as apartments, offices, classrooms, hospitals, and
transit station waiting halls. According to its authors, performing the
study in summer season while ventilation systems were working could
contribute to increased abundance of indoor MPs.
Cellulose particles, which were the most common polymers of the
samples (65%), were fibre-shaped, so if we disregard them it is logical to
have a more homogeneous distribution. The most abundant size range
was <100 μm for both MPs fibres (64 ± 8%) and fragments (78 ± 11%).
This information fairly agrees with a simulation of human exposure to
indoor MPs study which reported the vast majority of fibres on the
0–100 μm range (Vianello et al., 2019) and a study conducted in Cali­
fornia (Gaston et al., 2020) which also reported most of the fragments in
the 75–100 μm range (39.2 ± 0.1%). Samples corresponding to buses
(B1, B2 and B3) presented slightly larger fragments than the rest, which
could be related to the permanent outdoor airflows present in buses. It is
also noteworthy that MPs follow the same behaviour previously re­
ported for all the particles present in the samples: its frequency de­
creases when increasing size.
A rough estimation of the inhaled MPs was done according to the
following formula:
/
MP inhalation (n) = MP concentration (n / m3) VE (m3 min)x time (min)
where n is the number of MPs and VE the minute ventilation.
Assuming that adults spend 8 h working, 1 h in public transport and
12 h at home, the average number of inhaled MP indoors would be 37
MPs day− 1. This result agrees with previous studies that explored the
potential for microplastic inhalation (Cox et al., 2019).
4. Limitations of the study
This study has limitations for identifying MPs smaller than 20 μm in
size due to the identification methods used. Thus, we might have
underestimated MPs abundance. Also, the inhalation dose calculation
has high uncertainty since the respirable fraction is mostly formed by
particles with aerodynamic diameter ≤10 μm. Another limitation is the
rather low number of samples analyzed reducing the statistical power
and the conclusions of the study. Comparison between the different
indoor environments might be compromised by the different number of
samples taken. We tested 6 houses, while 3 samples were taken in the
subway, buses and workplaces. Finally, we should mention that the
selected workplaces are not representative of all working areas but can
be considered representative of storehouses and laboratories. It was not
possible to sample in other workplaces such as restaurants, kitchens and
other office buildings because of the COVID-19 restrictions.
8
Environmental Pollution 308 (2022) 119707
5. Conclusions
So far, few studies have reported MPs concentration in indoor air
following quality control procedures. However, these investigations
highlight the need of considering indoor MPs as a significant pathway
for human plastic exposure due to the high concentrations found. This
study has followed strict quality control and assurance protocol to pre­
vent external air contamination of the samples. New data are provided
on MPs abundance in indoor air in houses, working places and public
transport in the urban area of Barcelona.
Highest concentrations of MPs were observed inside buses followed
by subway trains, houses and workplaces. Three different polymers (PA,
PES, PP) were found during this study, associated to personal care
products, and synthetic textiles, with an average inhalation dose
calculated (37 MPs per day) in the range observed in previous indoor air
studies. The frequency of MPs in our study decreased with increasing
size, pointing out their role to inhalation exposure risk. Since the iden­
tified polymers mainly come from synthetic textiles we could recom­
mend the use of clothing made by natural fibres to reduce exposure to
airborne MPs.
Future studies would benefit from a greater number of air samples to
get robust results. Special attention should be given to the chemical
analysis of MPs to identify their sources and release pathways. Also, to
accurately determine the inhaled MPs future works should focus in
inhalable and respirable particles (≤10 μm).
Author statement
Torres-Agullo A. carried out sampling, analysis, data treatment and
drafted the manuscript, Karanasiou A. designed sampling study, evalu­
ated the results and revised the manuscript, Moreno T. revised the
manuscript, Lacorte S. coordinated analysis, evaluated the results and
revised the manuscript.
Declaration of competing interest
The authors declare that they have no known competing financial
interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence
the work reported in this paper.
Data availability
Data will be made available on request.
Acknowledgements
This work was supported by the Spanish Ministry of Science, Inno­
vation and Universities (Excelencia Severo Ochoa, Project CEX2018-
000794-S within the project MOMIA and project PID2019-105732 GB-
C21).
Appendix A. Supplementary data
Supplementary data to this article can be found online at https://doi.
org/10.1016/j.envpol.2022.119707.
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