Ordinary Lab Gloves May Have Skewed Microplastic Data (nautil.us)

A study in RSC Analytical Methods finds that common nitrile and latex lab gloves can shed “stearates” that resemble microplastics and can be misread by spectroscopy and electron microscopy. Researchers initially saw unexpectedly high microplastic readings in the lab and traced the contamination to gloves, then tested seven glove types to measure false positives. The authors stress this doesn’t rule out real microplastic pollution, but it suggests researchers need improved controls and may consider clean-room gloves to reduce measurement bias.