06-30-2026, 07:20 AM
lower Puna has the cleanest air/rain in USA ........and nearly so on earth
If only life was so easy. And yes, with our air coming across thousands of miles of ocean and we being the first to breathe it as it makes landfall, it seems so easy to say our's is the best, how could it be otherwise?
But what about microplastics? or the fact that they, the tiny particles of plastic which are microscopic in size, can be a host environment for bacteria and viruses? And that they are airborne, and one of the largest sources of them is a massive body of plastic garbage in the ocean just upwind of us between here and the mainland?
So, maybe it's worth asking, how much plastic, and the diseases it hosts, is in our rain?
I don't know.. it's a new(er) idea/issue/problem to consider.
Here's an interesting study..
From.. https://pub-data.diver.orr.noaa.gov/mari...eaches.pdf
Quantification of Microplastics on National Park Beaches.
Which includes at least 4 parks in Hawaii including Hawaii Volcanoes National Park. And whatever the size of the problem is now, I suspect this is only going to get worse. At one point the paper states..
Microplastics were found at all coastal sites but with variation between and within sites (Table 2; Figures 2, 3). Apostle Island National Lakeshore (WI), National Park of American Samoa (American Samoa) and Kalaupapa National Historical Park (HI) had the highest abundances of microplastics averaging between 170 and 225 pieces of microplastics per kg of sand..
If only life was so easy. And yes, with our air coming across thousands of miles of ocean and we being the first to breathe it as it makes landfall, it seems so easy to say our's is the best, how could it be otherwise?
But what about microplastics? or the fact that they, the tiny particles of plastic which are microscopic in size, can be a host environment for bacteria and viruses? And that they are airborne, and one of the largest sources of them is a massive body of plastic garbage in the ocean just upwind of us between here and the mainland?
So, maybe it's worth asking, how much plastic, and the diseases it hosts, is in our rain?
I don't know.. it's a new(er) idea/issue/problem to consider.
Here's an interesting study..
From.. https://pub-data.diver.orr.noaa.gov/mari...eaches.pdf
Quantification of Microplastics on National Park Beaches.
Which includes at least 4 parks in Hawaii including Hawaii Volcanoes National Park. And whatever the size of the problem is now, I suspect this is only going to get worse. At one point the paper states..
Microplastics were found at all coastal sites but with variation between and within sites (Table 2; Figures 2, 3). Apostle Island National Lakeshore (WI), National Park of American Samoa (American Samoa) and Kalaupapa National Historical Park (HI) had the highest abundances of microplastics averaging between 170 and 225 pieces of microplastics per kg of sand..