Nitrile and latex gloves may cause overestimation of microplastics in the lab
Why it matters: Lab gloves might be skewing microplastic data, impacting our understanding of environmental pollution.
- Nitrile and latex gloves worn by scientists are identified as a potential source of microplastic contamination.
- A University of Michigan study published in Analytical Methods highlights that these gloves may cause an overestimation of microplastics.
- Current microplastic measurements could be inflated, impacting the perceived scale of environmental pollution and human exposure.
A University of Michigan study reveals that nitrile and latex gloves, commonly used by scientists, may be a significant source of microplastic contamination, potentially leading to an overestimation of microplastic levels in laboratory measurements. This finding, published in Analytical Methods, suggests that current research on microplastics might be inadvertently inflated by the very tools meant to protect samples, raising questions about the accuracy of existing data.
