Plastic in the air we breathe

There’s something in the air that should worry the public and it’s not just the pollution coming from motor vehicles and industrial facilities. Scientists call it SAMP or suspended atmospheric microplastic.

A Philippine study has recently established, for the first time, the presence of SAMP in the atmosphere making it more imperative for the government to tighten already existing measures to improve the air quality and reduce the amount of plastic waste in the environment.

The study, “Breathing plastics in Metro Manila, Philippines: Presence of suspended atmospheric microplastics in ambient air,” investigated the air quality of 16 cities and one municipality and found that all sampling areas had the presence of SAMPs with fiber as the most common microplastic, specifically polyester (74 percent).

Among all the areas surveyed, Muntinlupa and Mandaluyong cities had the highest concentration of SAMP. The study estimated that an adult person in Metro Manila has the potential to inhale about one SAMP under normal minute ventilation if exposed for about 99.0 to 131.57 hours. It defines normal minute ventilation as the amount of air a person would take in a minute, which is roughly around five to eight liters per minute.

Microplastics are tiny plastic particles measuring less than five millimeters in diameter — imagine the size of a sesame seed or smaller. You may have used them through health and beauty products (microbeads), clothing, and other textiles (microfiber), or spotted them on a beach as those tiny, colorful plastic bits that have been broken down from larger plastics. But because they are plastics, they take hundreds or even thousands of years to decompose.

This is a serious problem for a country like the Philippines, which has been tagged as one of the world’s biggest sources of plastic pollution, producing over one-third of the global oceanic plastic waste. Plastic wastes ranging from product sachets, food wrappers, grocery bags, etc., choke the rivers, waterways, and seas and may find their way back to humans through the food they eat.

A 2020 study revealed that nearly half of rabbitfish samples from Dumaguete and neighboring areas had microplastics in their digestive systems increasing the likelihood that other local fish catch also contains the harmful plastics.

Now, they’re also in the air we breathe.

Studies have already been made for years on the health effects of ingesting microplastics with research in the 1990s pointing to a probable connection between plastic fibers and lung cancer. Several studies have also shown that particle pollution has long been known to damage lung tissues which could lead to cancer, asthma attacks, and other health complications.

At this point, little is known about SAMP in the local setting and further studies must be made to see the full extent of its impact on the environment and what direction to take to minimize its harm. This is as much a problem of manufacturing, waste management, and poverty, as it is of pollution.

Three years ago, the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) said air quality monitoring was a top priority to ensure that the environment and public health are protected from the dangers of air pollution. In its 2021 report, however, there was no mention of SAMP with its air monitoring more focused on pollutants from vehicles and industries. The DENR must now look into SAMP as a critical element in its air quality monitoring.

Knowing the air quality as well as the volume of specific pollutants present in the atmosphere of any given area could help the DENR in its surveillance and monitoring of erring industries, businesses, and local government units (LGUs). This is crucial information in the implementation of Republic Act No. 11898 or the Extended Producer Responsibility Act of 2022, which, among others, places the burden of collection, sorting, and recycling on plastic packaging producers with assets of over P100 million.

Before RA 11898, the responsibility of waste management has fallen largely on LGUs but many of them lack the capacity to do so as seen in how the country’s problem of garbage continues to mount despite clean-up efforts. This new law could be a breakthrough in finally and significantly reducing plastic waste through its “polluter pays” principle imposing stiff fines on big businesses that do not clean the plastic waste that they produce. But its success will once more depend on implementation—always a weak spot in Philippine governance.

Despite the name, microplastics are a major pollutant and, therefore, a major problem. If not studied and addressed urgently, they will pose a significant threat to the health of both the environment and the public. The government must act now before Filipinos pay the high price for toxic air.