Better Air Quality in Your House, Are You Sure?

Bad air quality in Jakarta and cities around it have raised everyone's concern regarding the health risk of breathing the polluted air. Maybe stay indoor is safer than go outside. In our cozy house. In our air-conditioned office, with carpeted floor and cushy sofas. But, have you ever wondered what is that tiny fibers floating around in the room? Many of you will answer synthetic fibers and yes, you are correct. That is indeed synthetic fibers in the size of micron meter.

Synthetic fibers are ubiquitous in everyday life and have become a vital role in our way of life. We use them every day for our clothes, we found them in our bathroom (towels, bathrobes), our bedroom (stuffing and covers of pillow, and mattress), our living room, our office (carpet) for comfort and protection. 

Currently, most of the fibers used in clothes are synthetic, with polyester being the most common, followed by nylon, and polypropylene, which are also crucial in carpet industry (Plastic in Textiles: Potentials for Circularity and Reduced Environmental and Climate Impacts, 2021). Even the single-use masks that we usually wear are made from propylene (Ullah et al. 2020).

Synthetic fiber is cheap, durable and resourceful, so, what's wrong? The problem is, the microplastics which are released from these materials during wearing, cleaning and drying. These microplastics is very tiny (less than 5 mm), that they could not be filtered out through nose after inhalation, but instead become trapped deep inside the lungs, likely producing a wide range of health problems ranging from a simple cough to lung infection, such as pneumonia. Furthermore, they have the potential to enter the bloodstream and result in major health problems including cancer or cardiovascular-related diseases (Kacprzak and Tijing, 2022).

Even though the negative impact of microplastics to the human health from the environmental exposure has not yet reported, suspended microplastics fibers have been linked to the negative health consequences in the workplaces that may be exposed to a high concentration of airborne microplastics, e.g synthetic textile industry, flock industry and vinyl chloride (VC) and polyvinyl chloride (PVC) industries (Prata et al. 2018). Additionally, although higher concentration of microplastics have been found in those workplaces mentioned before, microplastics have been found in human lung tissue in various occupations (Amato-Lourenco et al. 2021). Therefore, the occurrence of microplastics in the indoor environment, their potential impact on human health, and the mitigation strategies should be given extra attention before it is too late.

Microplastics in indoor ambient air might be the consequences of the local emission, and therefore, could vary depending on internal space, the amount of human activity, and lifestyle factors (clothing and textiles). Room distribution, ventilation, and airflows influence microplastics behaviour. 

Therefore, low rates of air circulation cause high concentrations of indoor microplastics. Moreover, studies implied that the concentration of airborne microplastics in houses may be depend on the differences in furniture, building materials, cleaning routines, and activities, rather than seasonality (Karanasiou et al. 2021; O'brien et al. 2023). For example, microplastics consisted of PET are commonly found from clothing materials. Polypropylene discovers from carpets, sofas, and chairs. Polystyrene from plastic bags and bottles (Dewika et al. 2023).

Microplastics are found six time higher indoors than outdoors, which sparked concerns among people who mostly spend their time indoor. Countries including France, USA, Denmark, Portugal, China, Taiwan, and Kuwait have reported the presence of microplastics from various places, such as residential locations, offices, laboratories, libraries, hospitals, schools, courtyards, and nail salons (Karanasiou et al. 2021). Although to date, only one study that reported the occurrence of microplastics in indoor environment in Indonesia (Bahrina et al. in 2020 has detected microplastics in the shape of fibers in indoor environment in Surabaya), mitigation measures should be started by now.

There are two approaches that can be done to minimize microplastics in indoor ambient air; indirect and direct way. Installing proper filters in new and existing ventilation or air conditioning systems, as well as using air purifiers in houses that do not have or do not use air conditioning systems on a regular basis, are examples of indirect approach. Considering that we spend most of our time indoors, using air filtration equipment is indeed beneficial for our health. The only thing is this approach does is only move the contaminants from one medium to another. It does not address the issue of microplastics in the air (Zhao et al. 2023).

On the other hands, a direct approach aims for a long-term solution to reduce microplastics from the sources, which is more difficult to do (Zhao et al. 2023). This approach requires a holistic action from the society, scientist, industry and government.

Researchers all over the world are in a race to develop bioplastics to substitute plastic-based materials and let's hope it will soon can finally be used in our daily life. Identification and calculation of real amount of airborne microplastics both indoors and outdoors in Indonesia should be intensified so that we know the real danger that we will face in the future. For industry, creating safe work condition and giving regular medical check-up for workers is obliged. Meanwhile, government intervention to make an ecofriendly policy is really crucial, i.e make a standard of plastic content in fabric materials for clothing and carpet maybe can be a starter.

Eventually, raising public awareness of the ubiquitous and negative impacts of microplastics to the environments is a priority. Everyone with every level education and social status and age should aware about microplastics. Maybe we will not experience the direct impact of microplastics now, but it surely is coming. In terms of indoor airborne microplastics, implementing green lifestyle by reducing the utilization of plastic-based appliances in regular basis will have significant impacts if everyone is willing to do it. Routine clean-up, ventilate, open the window for air exchange, are small things but paramount to have cleaner air indoor.