Microplastics Are In The Air, Drinking Water, Dust, Food: How To Reduce Your Exposure
'They’re in the air, drinking water, dust, food...How to reduce your exposure to microplastics,' The Guardian, 7.10, 23. Ed. - No corner of the planet is free from minuscule fragments of plastic packaging, textiles or utensils. We ask scientists what this means for our health – and what we should do to protect it - 🍿
Invisible specks of eroded plastic from long-forgotten toothbrushes, sweet wrappers & stocking-filler toys are everywhere. They live in our laundry bins, the Mariana trench & the human bloodstream. Microplastic particles can be small enough to infiltrate biological barriers such as the gut, skin & placental tissue. We are all now partially plastic – but how worried should we be, and is there any way to minimise our exposure? At present, says Stephanie Wright, an environmental toxicologist at Imperial College, London, a lack of epidemiological & in-human data means we don’t yet know the harmful effects of microplastics, but “I would say reducing particle exposure in general (including microplastic) is likely to be beneficial”.
But avoiding the stuff is a tall order, considering it’s in the “air, drinking water, dust & food”.
🥤Food & drink sealed in plastic has long been associated with cleanliness, purity & protection from contamination, but we now know that some of the highest exposures to microplastics, says Wright, “are likely to come from processed & packaged foods & drinks”. The shedding of plastic is increased when containers are exposed to heat. “Hot water in plastic-lined cups & takeaway containers also release micro- & nanoparticles, in some cases trillions per litre, although whether these are true plastic particles is unknown.” Wright says that to reduce exposure to microplastics, “I would start by not heating anything in plastic, or consuming hot liquid that has come into contact with plastic”.
This includes microwaving food in Tupperware or ready-to-heat products such as boil-in-the-bag rice & “food-grade nylon used for food packaging, as liners for baking pans in restaurants & commercial kitchens & in slow cookers in household kitchens”. When it comes to water, she chooses tap over bottled: “Some bottled waters –including glass bottles – contain thousands of microplastic particles per litre.” And, ideally, she would take it filtered. Mark Taylor, chief environmental scientist at the Environmental Protection Authority in the Australian state of Victoria, points out that home water filters are usually plastic, too: “Ultimately it will start to shed because it will degrade.” This gives me the perfect opportunity to gloat about my glass & stainless steel filter jug, but then I remember that the charcoal refills come in plastic pouches. 🍟
When you start observing your plastic use, it’s hard not to spiral. “I think we can stress ourselves out over all of these things & put too much focus on it,” says Taylor.
“The reality is people are living longer than they’ve ever lived before. Some people in a [global] population of 8 billion, of course, will be affected & may well die as a result of microplastics exposure.” The way forward, he says, is “balancing the risk of microplastics versus practical actions & lifespan.”..Keeping a clean house can reduce exposure. “Carpets, curtains, the sofa, most of those are probably not made from fully natural fabrics, & they degrade & their fibres accumulate,” he says. All that dust & fluff that balls up like tumbleweed under sofas, or twinkles in sunbeams after you plump a cushion, will contain plastic fibres. He says: “It’s very clear, whether you’re dealing with microplastics or trace metals such as lead, zinc, cadmium & arsenic that migrate into a home, that regular vacuuming is really effective at reducing the load.” If you don’t vacuum, the dust remobilises &, adds Taylor, “deposits in open water vessels, on your fruit, on people’s hands, kitchen utensils”... Read More, https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2023/jul/10/air-drinking-water-dust-food-how-to-reduce-exposure-microplastics
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Those are the most ecologically sound way of toting our things around. But yup, they would take up quite a bit of space if you're buying a lot of groceries.
In the UK we had to pay for grocery bags, so most folks brought our own into the store with us. Saved a lot of plastic waste.
sis.
