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New study finds microplastics infiltrate all systems of body, alter behaviour
(www.sustainableplastics.com)
this post was submitted on 29 Aug 2023
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I often see articles about the effects of microplastics, but I have yet to see or read about the best steps we can take to combat them.
Can anyone recommend some content that describes ways to reduce exposure or share the most effective ways there are of reducing microplastic exposure?
Don't heat food in plastic in the microwave. Put in the effort to put it in glass or a plate or so, then heat.
Don't store hot leftovers in plastic.
Don't buy and drink plastic bottled water.
If you can in the stores in general chose between food and drinks packaged in glass or cardboard vs anything else: chances are glass or cardboard packaging is the healthier choice. Aluminum cans should still be okayish too, tho they possibly layered it with plastic inside too depending on the pH of the contents to slow down reactions between can and product.
The two largest sources of microplastics are clothing and car tires. Clothing is a pretty easy fix. Only buy natural fibers like cotton, wool, etc. For car tires you will have to drive less. These two sources account for more than half of microplastics.
Natural fibers are often outside the price range of the average person. Until prices come down or wages go up, people will keep wearing polyester clothing.
For tires, I'm hopeful that technology will improve the composition of tires, or even make them out of a modified form of natural rubber, but switching most transport to rail seems like the superior option here.
??? Cotton is usually the cheapest thing I see.
Even natural rubber makes microplastics.
Companies love to charge a premium for cotton here (Canada). I try to get Cotton, Linen and Hemp as much as possible, but I end up paying $80 for a t-shirt instead of $30.
Ban plastic. There is literally no other way. Nothing you do on an individual level will have the slightest bit of impact at all. Government has to treat plastic like Freon/DDT or any other chemical that was banned world-wide because of huge unexpected impact.
They can't ban literally all plastic; it's irreplaceable in some medical applications.
It's irreplaceable in a lot of applications. There's a reason we're using so much of it. Even in applications where it can be replaced, doing so would result in burning more fuel to transport the other, heavier material, accelerating global warming. Lose-lose.
It's also likely an uneccessary nuclear response to the situation. I doubt every plastic is as bad, do studies and ban the worst/least useful plastics and work your way from there.
I mean synthetic textiles alone make up almost half of the plastic in the ocean.