Abstract
Microplastics (MPs) are ubiquitous environmental contaminants detected across water, air, and soil, posing a major threat to organisms and presenting a critical global ecosystem challenge. This study assesses microplastic contamination in the street dust of Urmia city, Iran. Samples were collected from various points across the city to investigate the microplastic concentration, physical characteristics, and polymer composition. The results showed that microplastic concentration in Urmia’s street dust ranged from 500 to 17,000 particles per kilogram, indicating a high level of pollution. The most common form of MPs found were fibers, with a predominant size between 100 and 500 micrometers. In terms of color, transparent (40%) and black (22%) microplastics were the most abundant types. Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM) analysis of the particles revealed irregular shapes and rough surfaces, which are typical signs of physical and mechanical degradation processes like fragmentation and weathering. The polymer composition was determined by µ-Raman, revealing common types such as PS, POM, PES, PET, PE, PP, EP and PVC. Finally, the potential exposure of microplastic ingestion were analysed. Based on the estimations, an adult in a normal scenario ingests between 37 and 1150 particles annually, while in an acute scenario, this number can reach up to 2894 particles. The observed high contamination levels, fiber predominance, and greater estimated ingestion exposure in children highlight significant microplastic presence in Urmia street dust, emphasizing the importance of local mitigation strategies and further exposure research.
Similar content being viewed by others
A study on microplastics occurrence and dietary intake from staple foods and tap water in western Iran
Assessment of microplastics on the coastal urban waterways in a developing country: a spectrometric study
Direct µ-FTIR analysis of microplastics deposited on silicon in indoor air environments
Acknowledgements
We appreciate from Urmia University of Medical Sciences, student research committee for their financial support of this study. AI Disclosure: Artificial intelligence tools [ChatGPT and Grok] were used solely to edit and improve the writing and language of the manuscript.
Funding
The current study benefited from the financial support of the Urmia University of Medical Sciences, west Azerbaijan, Iran (Grant no:3428) and the code of research ethics certificate IR.UMSU.REC.1403.053, for which the authors express their gratitude.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Ethics declarations
Competing interests
The authors declare no competing interests.
Additional information
Publisher’s note
Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.
Supplementary Information
Below is the link to the electronic supplementary material.
Supplementary Material 1 (download DOCX )
Rights and permissions
Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.
Reprints and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Hosseinpour, S., Ayremloo, P., Fouladi-Fard, R. et al. Spatial analysis and potential exposure implications of microplastic contamination in urban street dust in Urmia.
Sci Rep (2026). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-026-59629-x
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-026-59629-x
Keywords
- Microplastics
- Contamination
- Street dust
- Urmia
- Health exposure
Source: Ecology - nature.com
