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Researchers have just discovered that the latex and nitrile gloves that they wear while researching microplastics shed... microplastics!
*facepalm*
So now in addition to the lab equipment sensitivity being questionable, we now have the concept of the readings having a thumb on the scale from the scientist's attempts to keep a sterile environment while unintentionally shedding the very thing that they're trying to measure.
The solution is clear. The researchers should be wearing leather or asbestos gloves. That would be easy to subtract out from the findings.
Okay, I'm overstating things. It's not the gloves per se.
From the article: "The contamination comes from stearates, which are not plastics but can closely resemble them during testing. Because of this, scientists may be detecting particles that are not true microplastics. To reduce this issue, U-M researchers Madeline Clough and Anne McNeil recommend using cleanroom gloves, which release far fewer particles.
Stearates are salt-based, soap-like substances added to disposable gloves to help them separate easily from molds during manufacturing. However, their chemical similarity to certain plastics makes them difficult to distinguish in lab analyses, increasing the risk of false positives when studying microplastic pollution.
The researchers emphasize that this does not mean microplastics are not a real problem."
I didn't know there was an additional category of clean-room gloves, but this isn't really my field. Cool stuff. I'm sure there are other types of these gloves, too.
The Science Daily article is an interesting read and doesn't get excessively sciency.
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2026/03/260329222938.htm
*facepalm*
So now in addition to the lab equipment sensitivity being questionable, we now have the concept of the readings having a thumb on the scale from the scientist's attempts to keep a sterile environment while unintentionally shedding the very thing that they're trying to measure.
The solution is clear. The researchers should be wearing leather or asbestos gloves. That would be easy to subtract out from the findings.
Okay, I'm overstating things. It's not the gloves per se.
From the article: "The contamination comes from stearates, which are not plastics but can closely resemble them during testing. Because of this, scientists may be detecting particles that are not true microplastics. To reduce this issue, U-M researchers Madeline Clough and Anne McNeil recommend using cleanroom gloves, which release far fewer particles.
Stearates are salt-based, soap-like substances added to disposable gloves to help them separate easily from molds during manufacturing. However, their chemical similarity to certain plastics makes them difficult to distinguish in lab analyses, increasing the risk of false positives when studying microplastic pollution.
The researchers emphasize that this does not mean microplastics are not a real problem."
I didn't know there was an additional category of clean-room gloves, but this isn't really my field. Cool stuff. I'm sure there are other types of these gloves, too.
The Science Daily article is an interesting read and doesn't get excessively sciency.
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2026/03/260329222938.htm
