Project Grant 2135218

This Project Grant from the National Science Foundation Division of Atmospheric and Geospace Sciences, under the Geosciences federal grant program (CFDA 47.050), provides $532,742 to the University of California, San Diego from March 1, 2022 to February 28, 2025. The grant supports laboratory investigations into the chemical and physical transformations of toxic plastic additive chemicals in the marine environment. Specifically, the university researchers will study the atmospheric reaction kinetics and fate of plasticizers, antimicrobials, and UV filters as they leach from plastics into surrounding waters and become airborne as components of marine aerosols. They will examine the chemical lifetimes of these additives in the aerosol phase with respect to hydroxyl radical reactions and determine how particle composition influences degradation kinetics. The researchers will also investigate whether marine-relevant photosensitizing dissolved organic matter can degrade aerosol-phase additives through visible/UV irradiation and produce secondary organic aerosol from semi-volatile UV filters. The grant provides support and training for a postdoctoral researcher to conduct this work understanding the impacts of plastic additives on air quality and human exposure.