this post was submitted on 22 Aug 2024
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95
How avoid microplasics? (infosec.pub)
submitted 3 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]
109 comments fedilink hide all child comments
 

I am busy and don't have time to research all of the ways corporations have poisoned us.

What are some good rules on how to avoid microplastics?

Eat local foods? Avoid processed foods? Walk/bike? Use dry soaps? Don't use any take away containers? Avoid walking near busy roads? Use cotton/wool for all clothing?

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[โ€“] [email protected] 13 points 3 months ago (3 children)

Short answer: very simple

Avoid plastic

You buy bottled water?

That has Microplastics.

You buy or store food in plastic?

Microplastics..

Use plastic straws?

Welp, Microplastics

Etc...

Basically it's difficult to avoid it since we use plastic almost everywhere daily, but not impossible.

[โ€“] [email protected] 25 points 3 months ago (1 children)

Microplastics have also been found in our drinking water. So maybe stop drinking water altogether.

[โ€“] [email protected] 16 points 3 months ago (1 children)

I can confirm that if you stop drinking water, in 72 hours or so you won't have to worry about microplastics.

[โ€“] [email protected] 6 points 3 months ago (1 children)

I've heard that anyone who's drank water has died anyways.

[โ€“] [email protected] 3 points 3 months ago (1 children)

~~Ban Hydrogen Dioxide~~

[โ€“] [email protected] 3 points 3 months ago (1 children)

Isn't it dihydrogen monoxide?

[โ€“] [email protected] 1 points 3 months ago

well ... yeah ... if you want to be technically correct

[โ€“] [email protected] 3 points 3 months ago (1 children)

All the plastic objects you listed are the long term cause of micro plastics. You don't get micro plastics from the plastic wrap on food or plastic straws. Micro plastics come from the straws thrown away that slowly break down into micro plastics over decades.

So avoid plastic to help the environment, but that won't change your micro plastics injested right now. It's in the food itself.

[โ€“] [email protected] 7 points 3 months ago (2 children)

This.

Avoiding plastic in your day to day might prevent leeching, which is nice, but you'll still encounter it in the natural environment.

The problem is the plastics never really chemically break down. They do undergo mechanical weathering though, so it all breaks down into smaller and smaller pieces over time. Eventually these particles are microscopic, and make their way into everywhere and everything it seems, from soil to rainwater to your breakfast cereal and your testicles.

You can probably filter it out of your water, I imagine reverse osmosis is likely effective since plastic molecules are somewhat chonky. A HEPA filter should get at least the larger particles out of the air. I don't know how effective it'd be with smaller particles, sometimes called nanoplastics. Avoiding synthetic fabrics probably would help somewhat, but I haven't read anything about this.

You can't get it out of your food though, we don't know enough yet about reliable ways we could keep plants from taking it up through their root systems. From plants it gets into the food chain, and much like mercury with fish, it'll likely end up concentrating in animals, like us. You could potentially grow your own food via aquaponics using filtered water and maybe keep it plastic-free, but this is a real reach here. And you're basically vegan now and have to literally grow all your own food.

Note, I'm largely speculating regarding methods.

Some reading material, this first one is about plant uptake:

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8618759/

Water filtration:

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10054062/

[โ€“] [email protected] 2 points 3 months ago

Thanks for the input

[โ€“] [email protected] 1 points 3 months ago (1 children)

It's reddit all over again. The top voted post is wrong. You post correct info with sources and you are buried at the bottom.

[โ€“] [email protected] 2 points 3 months ago

I did get to the thread a little late, the top comments were already in place. I also did make the choice to drop my reply in support of someone that was saying something valuable that wasn't getting much attention, instead of my own op reply.

It's Lemmy though, I have a feeling most of us read everything just due to how little there is to read. But yeah, we do share the natural first-commenter advantage thing that reddit has, it's a weakness of the overall format. AskHistorians created their highly successful sub mainly due to how much this irritated them. lol

[โ€“] [email protected] 2 points 3 months ago

Basically it's difficult to avoid it since we use plastic almost everywhere daily, but not impossible.

Car tires and brake pads produce micro plastics in our water system. It's probably impossible on an individual basis to completely avoid them.