image: Magnified microfibers view more
Credit: Rachael Z. Miller
Electric clothes dryers (tumble dryers) may be a hitherto unsuspected source of microfibers, widely emitting fibers from laundry into the environment through their vents, according to an experimental study
Funding: Institutional Development Award (IDeA) from the National Institute of General Medical Sciences of the National Institutes of Health under Grant # 2P20GM103432. The funder provided support in the form of salaries for author [K.K.], but did not have any additional role in the study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript. The specific roles of this author are articulated in the 'author contributions' section. Rozalia Project, a Vermont-based NGO. The funder provided support in the form of use of equipment for author [R.Z.M], but did not have any additional role in the funding, study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript. The specific roles of this author are articulated in the 'author contributions' section.
Competing Interests: Author KK has no competing interests to declare. Author R.Z.M is a patent holder of and co-owner of Cora Ball, a commercial entity. The Cora Ball is not specifically mentioned in this paper, though the category of microfiber-catching devices is mentioned and the Cora Ball is one of the devices tested in two referenced papers (McIllwraith 2018, Napper 2020). The Cora Ball is solely marketed for use in washing machines. Cora Ball did not provide support of any kind and did not have any additional role in the study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript. This does not alter our adherence to PLOS ONE policies on sharing data and materials.
Article URL: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0239165
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Journal
PLoS ONE