Scientists have found microplastics in snowpacks across the Sierra Nevada, a jarring discovery that may help California regulators better understand how the polluting particles are entering the state’s drinking water supply.
The preliminary findings also indicate that microplastics — tiny fragments shed from synthetic clothing, food packaging and tires — are so widely dispersed that they have found their way to some of the most remote and pristine parts of the California landscape, a troubling development as scientists race to understand their long-term health impacts.