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Realistically, the best thing you can do to reduce your microplastics intake seems to be to avoid microwaving in plastic bowls and to avoid using plastic bottle
by dijit 6mo ago
Realistically, the best thing you can do to reduce your microplastics intake seems to be to avoid microwaving in plastic bowls and to avoid using plastic bottles for soft drinks and water. (Though cans actually use a thin film of plastic inside too.. so, maybe just avoid packaged water?)
Beyond your personal intake though there's bigger fish.
Car tyres are the #1 source for microplastics entering rivers, and it's not even close (they're thought to be the source of up to 85% of all environmental microplastics).
Those particulates don't just vanish, they end up in the soil and the waterways and it ends up inside you, no matter what you do.
- cubefox 6mo agoThe article says this is probably wrong. We breathe in much more.
- Carrok 6mo agoCurious why you say this when the linked article says the best thing you can do is avoid synthetic textiles
- dijit 6mo agothe article lists several things including textiles, plastic packaging, and avoiding tyre particles. I led with containers/bottles because that's where the most concentrated single exposures seem to be (microwaving in plastic, bottled water), but you're right that textiles are up there too, especially for airborne microfibres. The exposure from food packaging is many times more prominent than polyester, which slows down leeching over time.
- deleted 6mo ago[deleted]
- scotty79 6mo agoThe article focuses on the airways. The commenter probably takes more hollistic approach and you are gonna eat way more palstic in yoir life than you breathe in.
- OutOfHere 6mo agoOne action doesn't obviate the need for another. Also, stop using dishwashing pods and laundry pods with the dissolvable plastic layer encasing them. Use powder or liquid detergent instead. If you can't find it in store, look for it online, because it definitely is in stock.
- VladVladikoff 6mo agoWhere I live it has become almost impossible to find powdered dish detergent. Everything is the pods.
- schiffern 6mo ago>microwaving in plastic bowls More generally, never let hot food touch plastics. The high temperature is what damages the plastic surface, not anything special about microwaves. For instance the same thing happens with plastic tea bags in hot water: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0045653524026377 https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S004565352...
- OutOfHere 6mo agoSome people use plastic cutting-trays / knives / forks /spoons / cups / jugs, which also are some things to avoid. I would also avoid all nonstick pans and utensils, as they're lined with PFAS which is worse than plastic, and slowly it will break off into the food. Beware the industry shills on this forum, as they will have you ignore the fact that ingesting PFAS is well known to result in higher blood levels of PFAS.
- alt227 6mo agoFully agree with you, however eating small bits of PFAS from pans seems to be pretty non toxic. Even in the recent Veritasium video about it they said that unless the chemical was heated to above ~300 degress C if will pass through the human digestive system without causing any harm. https://youtu.be/SC2eSujzrUY https://youtu.be/SC2eSujzrUY
- array_key_first 6mo agoNon stick pans are perfectly safe to use. But, if you're worried, just avoid very high temperatures and use wooden utensils on them, never metal.
- KellyCriterion 6mo agoWait, WHAT? There are _plastic_ tea bags? Really? Didnt know that we reached that level of degredation already! :-D Another example comes to my mind: In lot of European conutries, at "cheese corner/bar" in the supermarket, every time a piece of cheese is cut, they are removing the foil, cutting the cheese, and then re-packing it in new foil after that - and this for every chees bar in every supermarket: How much kilometers does just one branch waste per year?
- sebmellen 6mo agoThere’s a big difference between nanoplastics/chemical leeching (which is what happens with heated food containers) and microplastics of the sort that break off from clothing other plastic materials (which is what the article is talking about). Both are significant issues though.
- _DeadFred_ 6mo agoSo I boil my water (hoping it does something to all the mirco plastics, maybe make them lump together). Only just now did I think to check 'is my metal kettle lined with plastics'. And guess what... The modern world is exhausting sometimes.
- Ferret7446 6mo ago> Car tyres are the #1 source for microplastics entering rivers, and it's not even close (they're thought to be the source of up to 85% of all environmental microplastics). Do EVs create more microplastics than ICE vehicles then?
- dijit 6mo agoyes