THE SACRAMENTO BEE - Microplastics are falling with snow in the Sierra Nevada, even in remote mountain areas far from human activity, a new study by UC Riverside researchers found.
University of California, Riverside, Environmental toxicologist Aleksandra Karapetrova, collected snow at seven sites, reaching six of them on skis and one by chairlift, the university said.
“But no matter how far out the site, I always found microplastics there,” Karapetrova said. The findings, published in the journal Environmental Science and Technology, showed how plastic particles in the atmosphere traveled to remote mountain areas and fell to the ground with snow.