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?
It’s too late to avoid them. Microplastics are being found literally everywhere on the planet.
I’m going to take a different approach than most of the other comments here: you can’t. Microplastics are in the air and a large chunk of it comes from car tire residue. You’re breathing it, likely right now. Research is still in the early phases and we just don’t know how bad it is yet, both from the proliferation and the impact side of things.
Source is Breaking the Plastic Wave and Overview on the occurrence of microplastics in air.
Short term: grow your own food.
long term: politicsThe micro plastics are in the soil. If you live urban or suburban, your soil is likely more contaminated with micro plastics than food grown on a rural farm.
You can’t buy and optionally clean a bag of dirt?
Considering it’s also in the water, probably not, no.
Next to none in my water :p
There’s next to none in all water, when measured by volume.
But things concentrate, so the 0.00005% adds up over time.
A quick google finds me an article going into the measurements taken with the tap water here: it’s so little it’s in the range of a measuring error for none at all.
I’d have to pour 350 cups of water to find even one particle, if I’m unlucky
This is a “parts per
millionbillion” sort of thing.Think of it like PFAS or some other harmful chemical (which, you know, it basically is): the layperson would be categorically unable to get a meaningful measurement from a glass of water, but it can still fuck you (and everyone else) up real bad in the long run.
The only particles found were really small: 50 microns
going with that, 350 glasses, 250ml per glass, 1e+12 cubic microns per cm3
So 1 particle in 3502501e+12/50 cubic microns of water
according to my calculator that would be about 5.7×10^-10ppm
aka, next to none
yes I did the math using the simple example I found on the doc :0
The plastic particles are small enough to enter the cells of your body. No filter can let dirt through and block micro plastics.
Maybe stop thinking in absolutes and see if blocking 99% makes a difference? You gotta be smarter than to think in black and white
I don’t think you understand how small the particles are. You can’t filter micro plastics out of soil because the micro plastics are the same size as the soil particles. Take a bucket of sand and dye half red. How are you going to filter it?
There are methods to destroy micro plastics like raising the temp. But that will kill the bacteria in the soil making it sterile.
They’re there in varying sizes. We’re not looking for perfection. We’re looking for ‘good enough’. And if the place you live is so polluted that you can’t even grab some dirt out of your yard without poisoning your plants… I think you have to get out of there
I don’t think you understand the physics of the problem. Have you played connect 4, the game with the checkers that you drop down a slot?
Imagine the black checkers are dirt particles and the red checkers are microplastic. The game set with the slots is the filter the particles drop through. Play a game and then open the slider at the bottom to dump the checkers. Do the red checkers stay in the game set while only the black fall out? Of course not, because they are the same size.
There is no possibile way to filter the plastic because it is the same size as the dirt in all its different sizes. There are large and small dirt particles. There are large and small micro plastics. If you remove 1% of the microplastic you remove 1% of the dirt, so the remaining dirt is just as contaminated. You didn’t filter it, you only removed an equal amount of dirt and plastic.
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2215016121003095
Do you not understand what the prefix “micro” means?
Which has to do with buying a bag of dirt?
The micro plastic is in the dirt. Most commenters here think microplastic means a bit of plastic that broke off packaging.
Microplastic are plastic pieces that you need a strong microscope to see. They can be as small as bacteria.
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2215016121003095
How does that stop me from shopping around to find clean dirt?
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You are going to pay hundreds per bag to send it for testing?
Why don’t you tell me how you think you’re gonna clean literally microscopic plastic fragments out of said dirt?
I think I’ll call around to find some that have dirt with little plastic. I said optional for a reason
Let me put it another way:
Microplastics are so small that they are found in rainwater - as in, they’re found in water collected from precipitation in a pristine vessel. They’re literally everywhere, in every part of our ecosystem and food chain at this point. There is unfortunately no escaping them.
Can’t wait for the Water World future, these bags of dirt are gonna be worth a fortune.
Now that’s something to stockpile then
I’ve found bits of plastic trash in almost all of the potting soil I’ve bought. I’m at the point where I think a heavily filtered hydroponic setup is one of the only ways to really minimize microplastics.
Hydroponics are done with plastic components. I’ve never heard of hydroponics done with glass.
probz a good idea to buy elsewhere then
you don’t. you can try to mitigate it by using less plastic yourself, buying local foods, whatever, but it won’t make much of an impact.
the less bad news is that plastic, by its own properties, is chemically relatively inert, so they’re really not that harmful. they’re still bad, mind you, just not all that hyped up to be.
PFAS are extremely inert, yet they wreak all kinds of havoc in the bodies of humans and animals.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Per-_and_polyfluoroalkyl_substances
Scientists thought, as you say, that them being chemically inert means they wont be dangerous to living creatures. Sadly they were proven wrong on that.
Die
On Mars.
In the past
…ures of plastic waste
That’s the neat part, you can’t
😂
They’re in he air, the water, the food, your brain, apparently. Your reproductive fluids…there’s literally no escape. We signed this pact with satan when capitalism determined that profit is the only thing that matters.
The first step we could take? Bringing the exploitative and murderous system of capitalism to its knees. So we can promptly shoot it in the back of the head. Then, maaaybe our children’s children’s children would have an option to avoid microplastics.
https://www.aamc.org/news/microplastics-are-inside-us-all-what-does-mean-our-health
My take-aways from this article:
There’s no good study on microplastics in humans.
They’ve tested “pristine” plastic on mice and it’s pretty bad.
The plastics we’re exposed to are loaded with chemicals and toxins.She carries a stainless-steel water bottle and avoids plastic water bottles. She doesn’t microwave food in plastic containers and only uses glass, wood, or metal kitchen items, including mixing bowls, spoons, cutting boards, and food storage containers.
takes her shoes off to avoid tracking in dust from the outside and uses a HEPA filter to capture particles from the air.
Great point. Tires are one of the leading products polluting our environment and lungs.
This article also links to The Program on Reproductive Health and the Environment at UCSF which offers a guide for minimizing exposure to bad stuff. https://prhe.ucsf.edu/toxic-matters
Here’s a relevant NYT Article - How to Minimize Your Exposure to Microplastics
You can’t outright, but you can at least try to minimize your exposure. Easiest way is to avoid buying products that use plastic packaging, especially if the product that you’re planning to buy is food. Don’t microwave plastics, even the supposedly “food safe” one - that releases a ton of microplastics into your food. Don’t order takeout - again, lots of plastic in the containers. Even paper food containers contain a plastic coating.
Don’t touch receipts, especially with wet hands. Or at minimum, wash your hands thoroughly after touching it
The receipt thing, is about the general carcinogenic properties of the thermal paper, and if anyone is a cashier that handles them regularly, wear gloves.
Clothing and textiles from natural fibres. No rubber tires as they are major shredders of micro plastics.
Where are you supposed to get tires not made of rubber?
Drive less would best the recommendation. Though I feel this doesn’t directly help yourself so much as everyone.
well then fuck that then, I only care about myself …
Tires are made of vulcanized “rubber” which is actually an oil product.
Rubber tires would be fine as rubber is a natural material but they would expensive and not as durable
They do still contain a good portion of rubber; the natural type farmed from trees.
Is that why they can still call themselves “rubber”?
I had a similar thought, but when I looked into it, the difference between natural and oil based rubber is not significant. Natural rubber would be just as bad.
Why? Wouldnt it just rot away instead ofinger for 300 years?
It’s a polymer just like synthetic rubber. It isn’t like other natural products. Wood can rot because it’s made of cellulose, but rubber can’t. Nothing eats it.
Trains use steel wheels (unless the government is in the pocket of Big Rubber, like the Michelin trains in Paris)
That would work great on cars too, all we need is all the roads to be as smooth and even as steel rails.
How to find tires made out of actual rubber?
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Cement is porous, those microplastics will get in eventually.
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.
Microplastics have also been found in our drinking water. So maybe stop drinking water altogether.
I can confirm that if you stop drinking water, in 72 hours or so you won’t have to worry about microplastics.
I’ve heard that anyone who’s drank water has died anyways.
Ban Hydrogen DioxideIsn’t it dihydrogen monoxide?
well … yeah … if you want to be technically correct
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.
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:
Thanks for the input
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.
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
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.
You can’t completely avoid them, but avoiding plastic food/drink containers is an easy thing to do. Good for the environment too, not just your health.
I sure do miss glass bottles.
probably because they’re clear
No, acshually…
**
Damn dad jokes…
