The tiny particles are now pervasive around the world and have been detected in polar regions for the first time.
The impact of both nanoparticles and microplastics on people's health is not known.
The analysis of a core from the ice cap showed that it had been polluted for at least 50 years. The researchers were surprised to find that a quarter of the particles were from vehicle tires.
The wind from cities in North America and Asia is thought to blow light particles to the island. The sea ice in McMurdo Sound is likely to have been transported by ocean currents.
Scientists reported on Tuesday that the planet has passed the safe limit for humans due to the cocktail of chemical pollution. From the summit of Mount Everest to the depths of the oceans, plastic pollution has been found. A recent study found that microplastics cause damage to human cells.
The leader of the new research, Duan Materi, from the University of the Netherlands, said that they found the plastic in the far corners of the Earth. Microplastics are very toxicologically active, and that is why this is important.
There were layers of snowfall dating back to 1965, represented by the 14 metres deep ice core. The surprise for me was that we detected it all the way down the core. Although it is considered a novel pollutant, it has been there for decades.
The team had to develop new methods to analyse the smaller particles after they were found in the ice. The new research provides real-world evidence that dust worn from tyres is a major source of ocean microplastics.
In the journal Environmental Research, there was a new study that found 13 grams of plastic in a liter of ice in Greenland, but four times more in the ice of the South Pole. The process of forming sea ice concentrates the particles.
Half of the plastic used in single-use plastic bags and packaging was made of PE. A quarter of the particles were tire particles and a fifth werePET, which is used in drinks bottles and clothing.
Half of the plastic in the ice was PE, but the other half was PP. There were no tyre particles found in the far away area of Antarctica. The researchers took samples from the centre of the ice cores to make sure they weren't contaminated.
There are plastic particles in rivers in the UK, water from the North Atlantic and lakes in Siberia, and snow in the Austrian Alps. The continents are where people live.
The researchers said that plastic has shown adverse effects on organisms. Human exposure to plastic can cause inflammation.
The most important thing as a researcher is to accurately measure the pollution. We are in a very early stage. It seems that it is a very big problem. How big? We don't know.
Dr Couceiro is leading a new group at the University of Portsmouth that is researching the impact of plastic pollution on health. One of its first projects is with the University Hospitals of the UK trust, which will investigate the presence of microplastics in the lungs of patients with COPD and asthma.
The research will look at whether the patients' conditions are caused by the high number of fibres in the air in recently carpeted or vaccumed rooms. Couceiro said that there is growing concern about what is happening to our bodies from inhaling and ingesting microplastics.
People may be breathing up to 7,000 microplastics per day in their homes. The data is really shocking, said Prof Anoop Jivan Chauhan, a respiratory specialist. It's hard to imagine they're not doing irreversible damage when we inhale or swallow up up to 1.8m microplastics every year.
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