Mar 31, 2026 06:00:00

The gloves used by researchers may be causing excessive false positives regarding microplastics.

Microplastics are tiny plastic particles present in the environment and have been detected in

various organs of the human body, raising concerns about their health effects. A new study from the University of Michigan suggests that gloves used by researchers during experiments and analyses may be causing excessive false positives of microplastics.

Avoiding and reducing microplastic false positives from dry glove contact - Analytical Methods (RSC Publishing)
https://pubs.rsc.org/en/content/articlelanding/2026/ay/d5ay01801c

Nitrile and latex gloves may cause overestimation of microplastics, UM study reveals | University of Michigan News
https://news.umich.edu/nitrile-and-latex-gloves-may-cause-overestimation-of-microplastics-um-study-reveals/

Maddie Clough , a doctoral student at the University of Michigan, participated in a collaborative project investigating microplastics in the atmosphere. The project involved graduate students and faculty from departments such as chemistry, statistics, climatology, and aerospace engineering, and Clough conducted her research using an air sampler equipped with a metal substrate.

However, when they estimated the actual amount of microplastics captured, they found that the amount was thousands of times greater than expected. This was clearly a false positive, so Kraff investigated various factors, including spray bottles and fine particles in the laboratory air, to pinpoint the source of the contamination.

As a result, it became clear that the nitrile gloves Mr. Kraff was wearing were the cause of the contamination. Although the use of nitrile gloves is recommended in the literature on microplastics, the stearate coating particles used in nitrile gloves are chemically very similar to some microplastics. Therefore, the stearate that peeled off from the nitrile gloves contaminated the sample, leading to the false detection of microplastics.

To investigate the extent of contamination caused by gloves, Dr. Kraff and his research team conducted experiments with seven types of gloves, including nitrile gloves,

latex gloves , and cleanroom gloves . The experiments simulated the work performed when studying microplastics, and examined how much contamination occurred on equipment such as filters and microscope slides.

The experiment revealed that the gloves caused an average of about 2,000 false positives per 1 ^mm² . 'The contact method we were trying to mimic is relevant to all kinds of research on microplastics. Touching a sample with gloved hands can leave stearate residue, which can overestimate the measurement,' said Kraff.

The research team also discovered that cleanroom gloves release the fewest contaminating particles. This is thought to be because cleanroom gloves are manufactured without the use of stearate coatings.

The stearate found on the gloves and the actual microplastics could not be visually distinguished using scanning electron microscopes or optical microscopes. However, it was possible to differentiate between the stearate from the gloves and the microplastics by analyzing them using infrared light and other methods.

Anne McNeil , a co-author of the paper and professor of chemistry at the University of Michigan, pointed out that studying microplastics is a difficult task because plastics are everywhere these days. She urged those conducting related research to 'address contamination from gloves and avoid overestimating microplastic pollution in the environment.'