{"id":739045,"date":"2026-02-03T07:29:10","date_gmt":"2026-02-03T07:29:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/739045\/"},"modified":"2026-02-03T07:29:10","modified_gmt":"2026-02-03T07:29:10","slug":"microplastics-in-the-air-can-be-more-prevalent-in-rural-areas-study","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/739045\/","title":{"rendered":"Microplastics in the air can be more prevalent in rural areas &#8211; study"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">While the full extent of the health impacts of microplastics on the body is still being determined, global studies suggest they can lead to cell damage in humans, can affect the structure of soil and be toxic to animals.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">The team selected three locations in Oxfordshire for the study, with samples taken every couple of days in each area &#8211; rural Wytham Woods, suburban Summertown and Oxford city centre.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">&#8220;In woodland, where you are supposed to have a fresher, cleaner atmosphere, there is higher microplastic pollution compared to the city,&#8221; Adediran, a lecturer in earth surface geochemistry, said. <\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">&#8220;This is why the problem of environmental pollution is very challenging &#8211; it is what you cannot see with your naked eye, what is atmospheric, what is airborne.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">In Wytham Woods, most of the particles found were polyethylene terephthalate (PET), used in clothing and food containers.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">In Summertown, polyethylene, used to make plastic bags, was most commonly found.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Most particles in the city centre were ethylene vinyl alcohol, a polymer used in food packaging, automotive fuel system components and industrial films.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"While the full extent of the health impacts of microplastics on the body is still being determined, global&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":739046,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3843],"tags":[728,70,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-739045","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-environment","8":"tag-environment","9":"tag-science","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/116005526805291537","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/739045","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=739045"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/739045\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/739046"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=739045"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=739045"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=739045"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}