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Tiny Plastic Is Everywhere
- subcosmos 8y agoWith 15 minutes of effort typing commands into a large bioinformatics database, you too can convince yourself that these contaminants may be behind the Diabetes epidemic. https://medium.com/@InfinoMe/diabetes-time-to-resort-to-plastic-measures-500cdf1fe528 https://medium.com/@InfinoMe/diabetes-time-to-resort-to-plas...
- teslabox 8y agoIMHO, the contamination of the food supply with rancid vegetable oil is a more important factor in the diabetes epidemic. Almost all of the vegetable oils at grocery stores are refined so customers don't realize they're using rancid oils. Vegetable oil is useful as biodiesel, and for making paints and stains. A drying oil is an oil that hardens to a tough, solid film after a period of exposure to air. The oil hardens through a chemical reaction in which the components crosslink (and hence, polymerize) by the action of oxygen (not through the evaporation of water or other solvents). Drying oils are a key component of oil paint and some varnishes. Some commonly used drying oils include linseed oil, tung oil, poppy seed oil, perilla oil, and walnut oil. Their use has declined over the past several decades, as they have been replaced by alkyd resins and other binders. - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drying_oil https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drying_oil
- stone-monkey 8y agoThis process sounds similar to seasoning a cast iron pan. Does that mean using a seasoned cast iron pan can play a factor in diabetes, since you're in taking more rancid fats?
- dogma1138 8y agoIt’s a very different process “seasoning” creates a thin carbon layer on the surface of them metal and essentially what it does is to fill all the small gaps that normally would allow food to get into and stick it’s essentially very simmilar to Teflon and other non-stick coatings.
- UpshotKnothole 8y agoPutting aside the fact that the claim made about rancid oil is pure fiction, the answer to your question is no. A cast iron pan is seasoned by carbonizing and polymerizing the oil under high heat, and what’s left can’t go rancid and isn’t really oil anymore.
- logfromblammo 8y agoThat is exactly what pan seasoning is. It's why the oil you use matters. The patina on a seasoned pan is a crosslinked polymer. The chemicals that make rancid oils taste and smell bad are generally the smaller bits that come off the molecule when its double bonds are attacked by oxygen: the aldehydes and ketones, and the short saturated fatty acids like butyric acid.
- Aloha 8y agoWhat does the blocktext and link have to do with your supposition?
- teslabox 8y agoMost so-called "vegetable oils" were traditionally used as drying oils. This was before the paint industry figured out how to use petroleum distillates in their products in the mid-20th century. Linseed oil was renamed "flaxseed oil" when the market for stain made with linseed oil dried up. Containers of vegetable oils typically develop a sticky film on them, due to the drying oil effect.
- birken 8y agoMaybe I'm not viewing this with the proper historical context, but I don't understand why you are saying the market for linseed oil has "dried up" for non-food uses. Boiled linseed oil, which contains linseed oil, is probably the most common oil based finish for woodworking. I also looked at this website about "Linseed oil market analysis" [1], which shows that Paints & Varnishes is still the largest user of linseed oil. Then processed foods, then pharma, then cosmetic, then flooring (which is probably also as a finish). I'm eye-balling the graphs because they don't have a table, but it looks like processed foods is only about 20% of the market. That might be a lot, I don't know, but it doesn't seem fair to say all this excess linseed oil is going into foods because there is no other use for it. 1: https://www.grandviewresearch.com/industry-analysis/linseed-oil-market https://www.grandviewresearch.com/industry-analysis/linseed-...
- teslabox 8y ago... strictly speaking you’re certainly correct that there is still a significant non-food use for linseed and the other vegetable oils. But there were only limited food uses for polyunsaturated oils before deodorization and hydrogenation techniques were figured out in the early-mid 20th century. People might [have] measured out a tablespoon for their cooking pan, whereas today people use these oils prolifically.
- dogma1138 8y agoRefined oils have nothing to do with being rancid it’s an extraction technique that uses heat instead of pressing. Refined oil will go rancid in the kitchen just as easily as cold pressed and you will noticed since it will smell sweet and then putrid. Common cooking oils including canola do not oxidize well nor do they dry well which is why you would not use them on say wood because they will not dry and will just go rancid.
- teslabox 8y ago> Refined oils have nothing to do with being rancid it’s an extraction technique that uses heat instead of pressing. The petroleum distillate hexane is used to extract the oil from seed meal, then is boiled off: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vegetable_oil#Solvent_extraction https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vegetable_oil#Solvent_extracti... The specific step I'm referring to is "steam deodorization": https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vegetable_oil#Deodorization https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vegetable_oil#Deodorization
- dogma1138 8y agoAnd this has nothing to do with the oil being rancid deodorization is used to remove any water soluble solvents that may have been used in the process of extracting the oil. If you are going to link to Wikipedia at least bother reading the damn article. If you want to talk about the potential health impact of oils then erucic acid consumption might be a topic for discussion despite the lack of conclusive research on the subject so excessive canola oil consumption might be an issue despite it being capped at 2% in the US and 5% in the EU if you consume enough of it you might cause cardio vascular damage if the existing correlated data also indicates causation. But vegetable oils in general are not bad and are not sold as rancid that’s wrong, if you want to be on the extreme edge of the safe line then you can substitute canola oil with coconut, sunflower or peanut oil quite easily and these days also without paying a premium.
- deleted 8y ago[deleted]
- fredsir 8y agoI'm intrigued, still the sceptic in me thinks that most victims of type 2 diabetes are probably just victims of the simpler answer, which is occupying a body that has been exposed to too great amounts of fat (from especially oils and other processed foods) over too great a time period. However, I can only imagine the amount of harm continued consumption of plastic over a long period of time will do to a body, and I foresee that it will become clear that an increasing amount of people will be dealing with problems from precisely that in the next couple of decades.
- toomuchtodo 8y agoType 2 Diabetes is caused by carbs/sugar overconsumption, not fats. A ketogenic diet (high fat, moderate protein, low carb) diet reverses T2D in most people.
- fredsir 8y agoCarbs nor sugar causes T2 diabetes. Simply put, sugar (refined or in food with a high glycemic level) becomes dangerous when you are diabetic because you body can't handle it because the arteries are plagued (from overconsumption of fat) so the sugar becomes trapped in the blood instead of escaping and being processed as it should, and as it's trapped in the blood it will build up to dangerous levels. The reason a ketogenic diet reverses type 2 diabetes in some people are because either a) those people go from eating extremely unhealthy to following a specific diet or b) they eat less calories than their bodies use thus they loose weight and thus the plague built-up can reverse. A ketogenic diet that allows too much fat will give you type 2 diabetes just like any other diet that allows for too high fat consumption.
- toomuchtodo 8y agoIt is much much harder to consume enough fats to have the same caloric intake as carbs. That’s the whole reason keto works.
- fredsir 8y ago
- ams6110 8y agoI think it's much more likely that the diabetes epidemic is linked to the insane levels of carb/sugar intake and obesity of so many adults.
- subcosmos 8y agoWe can keep running on the macronutrient treadmill, like we've been doing for 50 years, or we can find molecular evidence that jives with genetics. Check out this study, where they fed mice water, water+fructose, or water+fructose+BPA. At the end of the experiment, only the BPA containing solutions had elevated liver fat https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0300483X12003617?via%3Dihub#fig0015 https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0300483X1...
- timr 8y ago"We can keep running on the macronutrient treadmill, like we've been doing for 50 years, or we can find molecular evidence that jives with genetics." Yes, let's ignore 50+ years of established science that is parsimonious with everything we know about the molecular biology of insulin resistance, and dump it in favor of a fringe theory, based on a single paper about a mouse study, where there's not even a plausible explanatory mechanism. Folks, stop downvoting simply because someone provides a link. The parent is spouting pseudo-scientific nonsense.
- subcosmos 8y agoThere are literally hundreds of papers on BPA and its links with diabetes. The only difference now is that we have the molecular culprit behind the trend. https://www.ucsusa.org/our-work/center-science-and-democracy/promoting-scientific-integrity/bisphenol-a.html https://www.ucsusa.org/our-work/center-science-and-democracy...
- timr 8y ago"There are literally hundreds of papers on BPA and its links with diabetes." There are literally not. The review you've linked to cites a handful of papers involving minor effects observed in mouse studies. Moreover, the paper you originally cited proves nothing even approximating a mechanism. I'm not suggesting anything about the safety of BPA, but it's utter nonsense to claim that it is a more plausible explanation for the diabetes epidemic than sugar consumption. A few mouse studies do not change 50+ years of established science on the relationship between sugar and diabetes.
- qbrass 8y agoPackaging food in plastic containers provides easier access to snackfoods, and allows you to carry them in more places to allow opportunistic snacking. While the plastic itself may not be directly causing diabetes, the increased availability of food might be allowing people to overeat and give themselves diabetes.
- WalterBright 8y agoPlastics should be taxed.
- dmritard96 8y agoAgreed. There should be a mitigation cost associated with all plastics. Nothing more frustrating than buying a container for some food that will last for millennia meanwhile the food was consumed in a couple minutes... More generally, I hope more will push for taxes on all things we want to discourage as means of weening off. Oil, coal, plastic, high impact animal products. All of them have huge external costs, none of which are payed by the consumer or producer directly.
- CptFribble 8y agoIf we began taxing externalities to reflect actual total cost to society, consumer behavior would change real quick. My only concern is that we are too far down to rabbit hole with cheap, ubiquitous, damaging materials that if the true cost was reflected in the price no one could afford anything.
- worldsayshi 8y agoThat's my fear as well but that is no excuse at all for not trying though. Because such reason would still never make the no-action option preferable to the action option.
- ams6110 8y agoBut who quantifies the cost of the externalities? Tons of room for political games there.
- WalterSear 8y agoSo we shouldn't try? Political games are all there is.
- 8y ago
- Aloha 8y agoI strongly suspect that within about 50-100 years something will evolve that can digest all of this plastic. Which will probably cause us as a society to move back to glass and metal as storage components.
- HiroshiSan 8y agoWhy do you strongly suspect this?
- wffurr 8y agoNo high quality source of hydrocarbons goes unexploited for long.
- seanalltogether 8y agoThe carboniferous period lasted 60 million years. We probably have some time to work with.
- lomnakkus 8y agoI think you mean the "biosphere" rather than "we". Modern humans have existed anywhere from 50k-200k years. Just to put the time scales into context. EDIT: Just to clarify: As long as disasters happen slowly enough and there are actually local maxima for the species to evolve "into", everything may be fine for "humans"... but those assumptions may be overly optimistic.
- wffurr 8y agoLocked away in geologically stable layers in a time of cataclysmic climate change. Maybe there's something to that and the oceans will acidify too much for bacteria to evolve to eat the plastic, and there will forever be a "plastic layer" in the geological record to mark this era. I was thinking more that the plastics in question are free-floating in a soluble medium and thus ripe for digestion by an opportunistic microbe.
- 8y ago
- ultra-jeremyx 8y agoThe real tragedy here is the lack of the Oxford comma in the headline.
- angel_j 8y agoDrink your fish beer!
- tzs 8y agoThe bigger tragedy is that there isn't even a good reason to argue over whether or not Oxford commas should be used. People think there is a good reason, namely that there are some lists that are ambiguous with the comma that are made non-ambiguous by removing it. However, as far as I've been able to tell, in all such lists the ambiguity is there because there are commas in the sentence serving to mark appositive phrases. If dashes were used instead of commas for the appositive phrase, then the presence of an Oxford comma in the list would not cause ambiguity. I've seen several writing guides that recommend using dashes for appositive phrases when there are other commas in the sentence. All we have to do is remember to do that (or better always use dashes for appositive phrases), and then it will never be ambiguous (as far as I know) to use the Oxford comma but may be ambiguous to not use it, and so always using the Oxford comma would become the only sane choice. There was a discussion of this a few months ago here on HN: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16345138 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16345138
- WhompingWindows 8y agoIsn't there a good reason in this case: Beer, Drinking Water and Fish Beer, Drinking Water, and Fish
- tzs 8y agoI meant that there isn't a good reason to argue about them, not that there isn't a good reason to use them. I'm arguing that if we deal with the true source of ambiguity when lists are used, the use of commas to offset appositive phrases, that eliminates that cases where including the Oxford comma introduces ambiguity, without removing the cases where omitting the Oxford comma causes ambiguity, and so there would then no longer be a good reason to argue against the Oxford comma.
- loisaidasam 8y agoStarting the title of this article with the word "Beer" is misleading. A neat trick, caught my eye.
- oftenwrong 8y agoText-only version: https://text.npr.org/s.php?sId=636845604 https://text.npr.org/s.php?sId=636845604
- jameskegel 8y agoI appreciate NPR for this text mode. They've earned my contribution, because I'd like to encourage others to do the same.
- your-nanny 8y agothey have that??so excellent!
- deleted 8y ago[deleted]
- exabrial 8y agoThis headline really needs an Oxford comma.
- dang 8y agoWe filled its need. Edit: actually we can just lop off the problem instead.
- asteli 8y agoRe: microfibers making it into water systems: This is a con to synthetic fibers that I hadn't been considering before. Recently I learned that cotton has a pretty high environmental footprint (land use, highest pesticide use of any crop, high water consumption) [1], and thus started moving some of my clothing purchases toward polyester-blends (trades the cons of cotton for petrochemical and energy use). Does anyone have a good grasp on the total environmental impact of these options, considering the entire chain (mining/extraction/cultivation -> disposal/environmental release)? [1]: https://www.nrdc.org/sites/default/files/CBD-Fiber-Selection-FS.pdf https://www.nrdc.org/sites/default/files/CBD-Fiber-Selection... [edit: added source]
- AdamN 8y agoHave you examined organic cotton?
- thaumaturgy 8y agoOrganic isn't always better for the environment. I can sort of accept people's motivations for organic produce when it's a food product, but for textiles it really doesn't make much sense. Organic cotton requires more water, more land, and more energy than conventional or GMO cotton: https://qz.com/990178/your-organic-cotton-t-shirt-might-be-worse-for-the-environment-than-regular-cotton/ https://qz.com/990178/your-organic-cotton-t-shirt-might-be-w... A better answer in any case is to buy less stuff.
- logicallee 8y ago(You might want to add that you're not OP i.e. asteli, the person AdamN directly asked. you have the same writing style, I was almost confused. If you do edit I'll delete this comment.)
- NotQuantum 8y agoThere's this same argument with recycling, reuse, etc. I.E how many times do I have to use my cloth bag before the resources it took is less than that of a normal paper bag. Recycling is the same way, IIRC, aluminum is the only thing that's cheaper to recycle, energy wise. I really wish more studies would look into the Energy per Ton for creating our consumer products.
- snarfy 8y agoI don't have a link but I recall reading that they can take a sample of ocean water from anywhere on earth, put it under a microscope, and find microscopic pieces of plastic. It truly is everywhere.
- kingkawn 8y agoPersonal anecdote; just got back from a trip to Hawaii. Many of the beaches there had significant deposits of pebble sized and smaller visible plastic particles. Presumably there’s exponentially more smaller ones that I couldn’t as easily see. Some of the beaches had plastic floating in the water. Locals said it wasn’t island dumped garbage, it was brought in from currents from the ocean. Horrific to see.
- stephengillie 8y agoJust got back from a trip asking the Washington State coast, including Westport and Ocean Shores, and Birch Bay near Bellingham. The beaches were nearly pristine, for the number of people there. I only saw the occasional lost sandal on the various beaches, and a few beer cans near bonfire dugouts. I was surprised at the lack of plastic and debris, given reports like yours. Is there a state or federal agency that combs America's beaches?
- selectodude 8y agoUsually the municipality sweeps the beach every morning.
- kartan 8y ago> Usually the municipality sweeps the beach every morning. This. People don't realize how costly can be to maintain a beach in a good state. I remember getting early to the beach seeing one of this https://gfycat.com/gifs/detail/BronzeOldfashionedKarakul https://gfycat.com/gifs/detail/BronzeOldfashionedKarakul Even more expensive is beach nourishment https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beach_nourishment https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beach_nourishment Cleaning work is ungrateful because people only notice it when you do a bad job.
- stephengillie 8y agoDo they normally comb the privately-owned beaches that border the public beaches too? A lot of Ocean Shores is privately-owned, and it's bordered by private beaches. Most beach wanderers are accidentally trespassing. Also, how do they clean the beaches where automobiles are not allowed? Part of Ocean Shores beach doesn't allow cars. And what about the miles of sand dunes, rocky beaches, jettys and other places cars can't go? How do so few people keep clean so much coastline? Are they training seagulls and deer to pick up litter? It doesn't scale...
- nostromo 8y agoA small number of countries are responsible for the majority of plastic in the ocean. China is far and away the worst offender: https://infographic.statista.com/normal/chartoftheday_12211_the_countries_polluting_the_oceans_the_most_n.jpg https://infographic.statista.com/normal/chartoftheday_12211_... https://www.iswa.org/fileadmin/user_upload/Calendar_2011_03_AMERICANA/Science-2015-Jambeck-768-71__2_.pdf https://www.iswa.org/fileadmin/user_upload/Calendar_2011_03_...
- balls187 8y agoWhere does the chain of responsibility end? Do the domestic waste management companies that profited from collecting plastics, only to send waste to China bear any responsibility?
- yawz 8y agoUsing "sold" instead of "sent" would be more accurate. But I agree that turning a blind eye on what happens next is not ethical.
- rrcaptain 8y ago> >Where does the chain of responsibility end? With capitalism. >Do the domestic waste management companies that profited from collecting plastics, only to send waste to China bear any responsibility? I would say they bear all of the responsibility, or at least the vast majority of it, due to the fact they profited from doing what they knew was irresponsible.
- anonu 8y agodoesn't help that many countries send their recyclables to China as well... If people could handle their own waste instead of shipping it off to another country, might make people more conscientious of their consumerism.
- victorology 8y agoJust learned this recently as well. I live in Korea where I learned they were shipping waste to China. Recently, I believe China shut this off and we've been made much more conscious about our waste in Korea within the past year.
- lwanga 8y ago"Scientists call the tiny pieces "microplastics" and define them as objects smaller than 5 millimeters — about the size of one of the letters on a computer keyboard." I am not quite understanding this sentence. Size of the letters on a computer keyboard!? What?
- killerdhmo 8y agothe little characters that represent the letters on the keyboard. Look down.
- bwbw223 8y agoNo-print keyboard users would like to have a word with you...
- DoreenMichele 8y agoAn attempt at explaining metric measures to Americans by referencing something readers of an online article should have ready access to.
- askaboutit 8y agoWe are running a massive experiment on our own race in the search of never ending growth. Glass is fine. Reuse, recycle, cut down on waste.
- v_lisivka 8y agoI saw lot of broken bottles at sides of the roads. I stumped by bare foot on broken bottle once, when I was child, and almost cut it in half. Ceramic is much safer option than glass.
- woogiewonka 8y agoAs an individual who wants to make the biggest impact on this issue, what are my options? I am a UX/UI designer and I wonder what I could do to help rid the world of microplastics. I was thinking off the top of my head: 1. Write a letter to every company that uses exorbitant amount plastic in it's product or packaging (tons of them here in Japan) and try to make them aware of the issue (appeal through emotions - their kids). I figured, if I send 5,000 letters, perhaps I get an action rate of 2%, that could amount to 100 companies acting to reduce their product waste. 2. I could write to every politician that comes in contact with this issue on a regular basis - but what do I tell them? I think it needs to be something very specific and actionable, but maybe it doesn't? 3. I could create a website that helps expose the issue. I think, especially here in Japan people are just unaware of the environmental disaster pending outside their nation. It seems the island as a geographical feature creates a very strong bubble and we hardly ever hear about anything environment related. I could also do the same in U.S. (multi-language site) That's where my creativity stops... what other things can I, or people like myself do right now to make an impact? EDIT: If anyone wants to help me make a list of top Japanese company executives (preferably with their email, and or any other personal information we can find - hopefully their kids names), I can write a compelling letter + email to try to get past their gatekeepers. EDIT 2: I am starting a doc to get info on Japanese Execs who have the most impact on this issue. I will try to find ways to communicate action to them in ways that do not cost them, preferably help generate additional revenue. Here is a link to anyone who would like to participate. I think if we crowd-source this issue, we can make an impact: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1biahioKkh7ZbYBxquWaML6nW3zXBZVkVRy0Pp22IiMA/edit?usp=sharing https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1biahioKkh7ZbYBxquWaM...
- orky56 8y agoI think it will be a tough sell to go after companies directly as an individual. Unless you are influential yourself, they will only take notice from an entity that dictates or shapes policy. It might be more beneficial to offer your services, perhaps pro-bono, to researchers like the ones cited in the article or to a non-profit with a similar mission. Your effort and hard work can be significantly higher levered with the right organization behind it.
- whycombinater 8y agoInstead of trying to optimize every last variable to maximize population and minimize side effects, it seems much more reliable and simple to minimize population. So many problems would be solved with 1% of the population. Think of the traffic improvements! Let's go for laws that limit children to under 47 per family.
- sebastianavina 8y agothanos did nothing wrong!
- freeflight 8y agoIt would also be enough if we'd just stopped thriving for this "perpetual growth in everything" idea. In that context, it's just absurd how falling birth rates in developed nations are made out to be this "bad thing" that needs to be countered by government-sponsored "make more babies" programs, as seen in Russia, Singapore, and some other places.
- fouc 8y agoIt should be possible to design floating trash collecting buoys in swimming areas that would gather trash due to wave action, no power or active mechanisms needed. Perhaps someone would go by and empty them every morning. Hotels and resorts on beaches would love to have something like this.
- cordite 8y agoHow would it differentiate between algae, plankton, and natural waste? What incentive do hospitality services have to perform this on bodies of water they do not have control of? Won’t it just be swapped with the same quality of water the next day?
- rrcaptain 8y agoAnd the waste companies they empty them to end up dumping them in some other water way.
- pasta 8y agoSupport the ocean cleanup project. Some people are very sceptical about the project but it's the only project that is trying to collect plastic asap. Asap = 18 days from now. https://www.theoceancleanup.com/ https://www.theoceancleanup.com/
- ummonk 8y agoI have a bridge project to Hawaii that I'd like to sell you. Some people are very skeptical aout the project but it's the only project that is trying to build a bridge to Hawaii.
- pasta 8y agoIf there is a need for such bridge and you can show me your plan, your R&D and a working prototype I might support your bridge project. Maybe you should check the website and see it for yourself.
- akerro 8y ago>the only project that is trying to collect plastic asap. There are similar project in UK, Germany, Poland and other Baltic countries, this one is just bigger than all other combined.
- 0xcafecafe 8y agoDonated
- achikin 8y agoTiny sand and stones are also everywhere. So what's the deal?
- lawlessone 8y agoThey're not plastic.
- achikin 8y agoWe are surrounded by plastic. What's wrong with it?
- presscast 8y agoRelevant paper from Nature published last year: _The presence of microplastics in commercial salts from different countries_. https://www.nature.com/articles/srep46173 https://www.nature.com/articles/srep46173
- yodsanklai 8y agoI wonder how this is going to evolve. Are we going to get used to see garbage everywhere (like in the movie "Idiocracy"), or will we take action?
- golergka 8y agoCan we please have science articles about science and research and leave biographies of scientists out of it? I want to read about plastic. I don't want to read about what the researcher who works on it wanted to do in her childhood. Please. It's one of the worst things about this type of journalism and constantly gets in a way of a good story.
- jernfrost 8y agoUgh... as if we didn't have enough environmental problems already to deal with. It seems like a very tricky problem to solve. Plastic is such a wonderful material with so many important applications it is impossible to imagine a modern world without it. But from what I understand not all plastic products contribute equally much to this problem, so perhaps one can make substitutes for only some key areas to make a difference.
- Regardsyjc 8y agoI'm not sure if anyone has mentioned this yet, but microplastics aren't only in our fish but it's also in American tap water. There is no water filter that I know of available to the consumer public that is fine enough to filter out microplastics of under 3 microns or something like that. As some commenters have mentioned, these microplastics come from laundry, and more. I'm currently working on developing disposable pads that are safe with a national Toms one for one model. Current pads and tampons from major brands are made with cotton that can have dioxin as a byproduct from the bleaching process, as well as rayon. Tiny pieces of rayon can get stuck and lead to complications like BVI, bacterial vaginosis. If a tampon can lead to health issues because of the plastic that can disintegrate in her body - I'm kind of really scared about what other type of damage microplastics in our drinking water can do. I mean we already have pictures of what it does to fish. What do microplastics do to the human body? This is one of the things where I wish I was wrong, so if anyone can educate me on how this is an irrational anxiety, I'd appreciate it!
- rsync 8y ago"There is no water filter that I know of available to the consumer public that is fine enough to filter out microplastics of under 3 microns or something like that." Common, uninteresting point-of-use filters are .5 microns.[1] Very inexpensive (the tap and the filter) and easy to add to your existing sink as a second tap. They don't have the flow rate required for a whole house filter, but you can find high flow filters as fine as 5 microns. A whole house 5 micron chained to a .5 micron drinking tap is a pretty bulletproof filtration chain ... [1] https://www.3m.com/3M/en_US/company-us/all-3m-products/~/3M-Replacement-Cartridge-Original-CUNO-8000-Series-Model-CFS8812ELX-S-5601107/?N=5002385+3291876016&rt=rud https://www.3m.com/3M/en_US/company-us/all-3m-products/~/3M-...
- antisthenes 8y agoWow, is there anything 3M doesn't make?
- annamargot 8y agoI bought a 5-stage RO (reverse osmosis) filter on Amazon. This review of my filter [1] says the RO stage filters down to .0001 microns. "Stage four is a high quality .0001 micron reverse osmosis membrane. This is where most of the hazardous contaminants such as arsenic, lead, and barium are removed." Does this mean I'm safe from microplastics? [1] http://www.yourwaterfilterguide.com/apec-roes-50-review/ http://www.yourwaterfilterguide.com/apec-roes-50-review/
- vagab0nd 8y agoSerious question: What harm does microplastics do to human body?