A University of Michigan researcher has discovered that lab gloves may have inadvertently contributed to the data that was being used to study microplastics in the air and water. This discovery led to a "wild goose chase" in the lab, where residue from latex or nitrile gloves may cause lab equipment to be contaminated, inflating estimates of microplastic pollution. The researchers used air samplers to collect particles from the atmosphere and place them onto a metal substrate, using light-based spectroscopy to determine the types of particles. They found that gloves imparted about 2,000 false positives per millimeter squared area. The gloves were found to be the culprits, with the fewest particles imparted by cleanroom gloves being made without the stearate coating. However, these gloves are 2-5 times more expensive than standard medical or industrial gloves.