{"id":82456,"date":"2025-12-13T20:37:07","date_gmt":"2025-12-13T20:37:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/82456\/"},"modified":"2025-12-13T20:37:07","modified_gmt":"2025-12-13T20:37:07","slug":"new-study-finds-microplastics-raining-in-florida-waters","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/82456\/","title":{"rendered":"New Study Finds Microplastics ‘Raining’ in Florida Waters"},"content":{"rendered":"

BREVARD COUNTY, Fla. \u2014 A new study from University of Central Florida researchers found microplastics in the air are \u201craining\u201d down into the Indian River Lagoon. The research was published in the peer-reviewed journal Environments.<\/p>\n

UCF Pegasus Professor of Biology, Dr. Linda Walters, said earlier water sampling estimated a significant amount of plastic already present in the lagoon.<\/p>\n

She estimates there are 1.4 trillion pieces of microplastics in the lagoon. She added, Scientists have spent years trying to figure out where it\u2019s coming from. UCF researchers determined a primary source is atmospheric deposition\u2014particles in the air that fall back to Earth. Those particles include microplastics, and the issue is not unique to the Indian River Lagoon.<\/p>\n

However, Dr. Walters stated that some characteristics make the IRL especially prone to accumulating plastics. \u201cWe started trying to figure out why New Smyrna, in the northern IRL, has so much plastic. The only thing we could really attribute it to is that we have about 10 million visitors per year. And the visitors are the ones who use single-use plastics.\u201d<\/p>\n

Limited water movement is another factor that enables plastics to accumulate over time.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is very limited circulation in many places in the lagoon, the plastics that get in the water are most likely going to get trapped there,\u201d said Walters. She told us, those trapped plastics don\u2019t just stay in the water\u2014they can move through the ecosystem and into people.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s going to be in us. It is in us. I mean, there\u2019s just there\u2019s just no question about that. It\u2019s a matter of is it making us sick or not? And that has not been officially documented.\u201d<\/p>\n

The study contributes to increasing evidence that airborne microplastics are an underrecognized source of pollution.primary<\/p>\n

Click here<\/a> to download our free news, weather and smart TV apps. And click here<\/a> to stream Channel 9 Eyewitness News live.<\/p>\n

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\u00a92025 Cox Media Group<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"BREVARD COUNTY, Fla. \u2014 A new study from University of Central Florida researchers found microplastics in the air…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":82457,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[45783,6126,166,45784,45785,45786,14353,29047,139,141,140,105,1279,45787,45788,1100,45789,17889,4103,221,10807],"class_list":["post-82456","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-orlando","tag-backgrounds","tag-close-up","tag-day","tag-footpath","tag-full-frame","tag-high-angle-view","tag-nature","tag-no-people","tag-orlando","tag-orlando-headlines","tag-orlando-news","tag-outdoors","tag-rain","tag-raindrop","tag-rainy-season","tag-season","tag-splashing","tag-torrential-rain","tag-water","tag-weather","tag-wet"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/82456","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=82456"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/82456\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/82457"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=82456"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=82456"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=82456"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}