From Martin Bide, Hope Valley, Rhode Island, US
Textile fibres are a significant source of microplastic pollution, as Graham Lawton points out (7 December 2019, p 38). Beyond the many unknowns and confusions outlined in the article, textiles provide one more.
Humans have lived with textile fibres for millennia, and we are all familiar with the dust and lint that accumulate in our homes. Exposure to such particles shouldn’t come as a surprise.
Around a quarter of the fibres we use today are cotton, and a lot of the microfibre materials that appear in the environment are cellulosic, such as natural cotton and manufactured rayon.
One study found that about 80 per cent of microfibres in ocean sediment are cellulosic (doi.org/gfk57x). Surely these materials, too, are ingested and are capable of releasing dyes and chemicals used in their manufacture? Or are we giving “natural” materials a pass?
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