Is there some sort of Pareto principle that could be applied to reducing plastic intake? Can someone suggest a few easy steps that would cause >50% reduction in plastic intake, for those who don't have time to dig through the research, and can't make drastic life changes?
I'll offer "don't microwave in plastic containers" as a starter for ten.
* switch from microfiber to e.g bamboo sheets
* donate blood periodically to reduce your body’s load https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamanetworkopen/fullarticle/2790905
* add a filter to your washing machine to divert microplastics from the wastewater e.g. https://planetcare.org/
planetcare.org - what a shitty website. Immediately a full screen popup came up to claim a 10% discount or "Nah, rather pay full price" and while I was looking for a closing "x" the next popup asked me to "Wait! ... blah ...". Luckily I found the x for my tab faster and left to never come back.
Another easy thing to do is to prefer clothes with natural fiber types (cotton, wool, etc). A lot of the particulates in one's home are generated from just the abrasion of your clothing as you move around. When those are natural particulates instead of synthetic, you'll end up inhaling a lot less.
Related is improving airflow and vacuuming regularly so that these particles don't accumulate as much.
Note that there are other environmental trade-offs to be made. Cotton is know for requiring tons of pesticides. Wool production also often involves pesticides and neuro-toxic dyes. In Let My People Go Surfing Yvon Chouinard claims using “every acre of land from Maine to the Mississippi” for sheep would be required to replace one synthetic wool yarn mill (pg102, 2016 ed). I’d be interested in finding corroboration of this, but regardless it’s made me rethink trying to go mostly natural textiles. Not to mention, for outdoor activewear, synthetics are almost always superior.
I think the real solution is to try to buy less clothing, reuse old clothing, use clothing longer, and reduce consumption from the worst offenders: fast fashion. Yes, you are still exposing yourself to plastics in your own home, but my impression is industrial production is by far the largest producer of microplastics.
Those are my top two. I'm also avoiding the grocery store bagged chicken sitting under a heat lamp, hot coffee in god-knows-what lined "paper" cups, and fatty or acidic items in plastic containers. No plastic cutting boards. No polypropelyne shirts or sheets. I'm just guessing at where the plastic comes from but it makes me feel better.
But ultimately, look around the grocery store or just life - everything's got plastic in it. If there are drastic negative health consequences to plastics (and it's looking really likely that there are), what the hell do we do about it? We've almost certainly committed too far to plastics to fix it on any meaningful scale.
Sad Aeropress noises... I really hope someone builds a metal or glass Aeropress, because I love everything about it but the fact I'm boiling plastic every morning...
Switch to loose tea (if you drink tea), with porcelain tea kettles to brew, and metal strainers into porcelain mugs. The tea bags are made with plastics.
While you're switching back to porcelain, glass, and metal, avoid things made in China if you can. Their porcelain and glass is high in lead (often poisonously so).
Eliminate any black or charcoal colored plastics that you can. When you get to-go containers for food, transfer it to a dish (porcelain) or bowl (porcelain or glass) immediately when you get home before putting it in the refrigerator.
Never microwave with plastic wrap (a.k.a. cling film). We use paper towels if it must be covered, or another plate if it's liquid.
No plastic utensils, no "paper" plates (paper plates are mixed with plastic to make them hold up better) and have their own forever chemicals in them.
Get a pour-over kit (ceramic or porcelain, glass, and metal). We still use paper filters, but make sure they're actually paper.
No polyester clothing, or at least more than 65% or 70% cotton.
Be aware, aluminum bottles (and cans, although they have recycle-ability benefits over plastic) usually have plastic liners. Glass (with its weight and durability problems), stainless, and titanium are good.
The truth is we're probably still unaware of the worst offenders but here how I go to reduce my exposure, in no particular order:
Food:
- avoid all that came into contact with plastics, use glass containers
- sea salt has microplastics in it, rock salt can be a better alternative
- don't use plastic utensils or equipment, like plastic grinders
- overall, avoir processed and packaged food, buying locally helps
- eat smaller animals: bioaccumulation is worse in larger animals
- I almost completely eliminated all seafood from my diet, if you want to eat fish, prefer the smaller ones
Water:
- use glass water bottles or reverse osmosis system that can filter smaller particles for drinking water
- if you enjoy soda, you should know most of them are contaminated, that is because carbonation increases internal pressure and mechanical stress on the bottle walls, which can accelerate the degradation of the plastic and release of particles. And it gets worse: every time you open the bottle, the pressure release causes even more degradation
- therefore for soda: use glass bottles too, cans are coated with plastic but not as bad as the bottles (they use epoxy resin which is more stable and the stress on cans is less than plastic bottles), but here glass is still king.
- I use a service in my city that delivers boxes of glass water and soda, it probably exists in your city too and is more affordable than you might imagine
Air:
- there is not much you can do to avoid microplastics outside, car tires supposedly account for 28% of all microplastics entering the environement, avoid living close to busy street? Truth is we don't have enough studies and data to truly know about that
- use an air purifying system for your home, the commercial ones are mostly bs, make yourself one with at high MERV rating (MERV 13 or above), there is a whole community of DIY builders, look it up
- use a vacuum cleaner that uses bags and possibly has an HEPA filtering, this will prevent you from blowing all the microplastics that may have shed on your floor into the air, make sure to keep in properly maintained
The typical advice also makes sense: avoid plastics in your clothes and in cosmetics, but I found these not always easy to apply and not as significant as the rest (water, food, air). So here's my bigger point: don't stress over removing all plastics from your life, it'll only make you miserable, pick your battles and make the changes where you can tolerate them, you'll probably be better off than most people.
Another bonus: at least for bamboo, it has antimicrobial properties compared to plastic, which tends to have all sorts of difficult-to-clean grooves for bacteria to hide in.
Alternatives are lot less practical or do not offer same advantages. Glass is heavier, less sturdy, possible produces shards that cause immediate damage such as cuts. Most metals need the plastic coating to be non-reactive.
And then products packed in plastic stored in inert gas last amazingly long time. Which is very big selling point for many customers.
> a group of Italian researchers followed 257 people who had plaque in their carotid arteries. They found that 20 percent of the people in their study who had microplastic-laden plaque had had a heart attack, stroke or had died after almost three years, compared to 7.5 percent of the people who didn’t.
Microplastics could be a proxy for diet. Which is why we need more studies!
> Scientists still don’t know what this plastic is doing to us.
I think it's because of this and how expensive, inconvenient, and possibly dangerous the alternative is. There's a lot of risk of illness in food handling, and things like one-time use containers and disposable gloves have done a lot to help.
"Microplastics found in X" has become a pretty weird sport.
The phenomenon is worth studying, but it's not hugely surprising given how ubiquitous they are (another thing you find in every human, probably in higher quantities, is sand). But despite tons of scrutiny, there are no studies showing that it's actually hurting us.
We've done some really sketchy things in the early days of industry (leaded gasoline, etc), and have gotten into this overdrive where we're jumping the gun on a lot of substances that are probably not bad. Every year, you have several headlines in the mold of "X is everywhere and might be killing us"... but never really followed by that "oh yeah, it was really killing us" part.
> Everything that goes into our bodies gets filtered through our livers and kidneys, so maybe it’s not a big surprise that bits of plastic find their way into those organs. Same with our hearts; microplastics end up in our blood and can get stuck in our clogged arteries.
> But our brains are designed to keep things out ... researchers behind the brain plastics study think the tiny shards of plastic hitch a ride on fat molecules to get [past the blood-brain barrier] inside brain cells ... The researchers estimated that the average brain studied had about seven grams of microplastics in it.
Having 7g of _anything_ foreign inside my brain seems like cause for concern to me.
The "getting bonked on the head a lot might be killing us" narrative has progressed rapidly in the past 20 years, fwiw, and you'd think we would have noticed it earlier given it is visually evident postmortem and doesn't depend on technology
I refer you to BMJ 2018;363:k5094, "Parachute use to prevent death and major trauma when jumping from aircraft: randomized controlled trial"
Conclusion: "Parachute use did not reduce death or major traumatic injury when jumping from aircraft in the first randomized evaluation of this intervention."
There is no sound evidence of having so much microplastics in the brain. The studies that show it are very broad, incomplete and did not check for false positives.
"The main analytical method used in this study was pyrolysis gas chromatography-mass spectrometry. This method can give false results when used to measure plastics because fats (which the brain is mainly made of) give the same pyrolysis products as polyethylene (the main plastic reported)"
And then you have something like this: pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32882126
In my country they tested adolescent children that were brought up by eating "bio" food vs people that ate regular food.
Kids that has been eating the 'healthy' "bio" food had, on average, unhealthy amounts of lead, heavy metals and other chemicals in their blood. The kids that didn't eat "bio" food didn't.
So I ask you, where should the average EU person go to?
Agreed. I think its something to look into but surely the boomers who went through the plastic industry in the 60s had it way worse when we had way less stringent standards and were getting exposed to and even eating now banned substances. If they survived it..and by survive I mean lived to a healthy 80-100 year life for the most part then we probably will be fine.
> Every year, you have several headlines in the mold of "X is everywhere and might be killing us"... but never really followed by that "oh yeah, it was really killing us" part.
"Why Aren't We Losing Our Minds over the Plastic in Our Brains?"
Because people value convenience and low costs over most risks. It's actually amazing that Organic food has found as much traction as it has with the increased cost and less convenient shopping.
I will second this. I notice a major difference in the taste of fruits (primarily blueberries and grapes) when the organic option is not in stock at our grocery store.
People like to make fun of me for buying organic (yes, I know it's not quite what the marketing leads you to believe -- especially depending on its origin) but I do believe it's worthwhile for the environment, me and especially for my kids.
More of it is because most people don’t know about it and out of the ones who know, most don’t believe it’s a problem.
We have scientific studies that also state that having plastic in your blood steam and organs, is okay. So unless we focus research on how plastics are affecting us, just studies saying we found plastic in xyz aren’t going to get us anywhere beyond “we should probably do more research on this”.
I disagree, many people love weird inconvenient things. Most of the west can live comfortably but most decide to overwork themselves for status. Even the billionaires need even more.
OTOH, people have a hard time thinking abstractly, so new phenomenons like that take time to grow. But look at nuclear, once loved then hated… Group thoughts & culture evolve with time so we never know.
There is lot of other perceived value in organic. It is seen as more healthy so it works as placebo. And then some can't ever put enough value on being able to feel smug and superior towards poorer people and less well educated.
> some can't ever put enough value on being able to feel smug and superior towards poorer people and less well educated
this feels like a disingenuous categorization to me. there are sustainability, ethical, supply chain, and other environmental considerations that impact why one might choose organic food. i don’t always, but am lucky to have the budgeting flexibility to choose fancy single-origin coffee or other things with “perceived value”
it feels that comments like this betray a desire to look down on others more transparently than choosing to shop at Whole Foods does
In a thousand years I think what we consider human will be a distant memory. Gene editing will transform our society. I call it the Michael Jordan Einstein theory
Convenience, and the absolute iron grip the chemical, petroleum, and retail industries have on politicians. Dare I say the only way to fix the problem with plastics is for a global leader to unilaterally lay tariffs on a wide range of plastic products and packaging, while eliminating them on alternatives to force the industry to move away from plastic.
Readit News
I'll offer "don't microwave in plastic containers" as a starter for ten.
Second might be "get a metal water bottle".
Maybe investment is required in FANG industries (apologies to Charles Stross)
https://e360.yale.edu/features/tire-pollution-toxic-chemical...
Related is improving airflow and vacuuming regularly so that these particles don't accumulate as much.
I think the real solution is to try to buy less clothing, reuse old clothing, use clothing longer, and reduce consumption from the worst offenders: fast fashion. Yes, you are still exposing yourself to plastics in your own home, but my impression is industrial production is by far the largest producer of microplastics.
But ultimately, look around the grocery store or just life - everything's got plastic in it. If there are drastic negative health consequences to plastics (and it's looking really likely that there are), what the hell do we do about it? We've almost certainly committed too far to plastics to fix it on any meaningful scale.
Given that it bio accumulates trying to get closer to the bottom of the food chain should reduce intake.
While you're switching back to porcelain, glass, and metal, avoid things made in China if you can. Their porcelain and glass is high in lead (often poisonously so).
Eliminate any black or charcoal colored plastics that you can. When you get to-go containers for food, transfer it to a dish (porcelain) or bowl (porcelain or glass) immediately when you get home before putting it in the refrigerator.
Never microwave with plastic wrap (a.k.a. cling film). We use paper towels if it must be covered, or another plate if it's liquid.
No plastic utensils, no "paper" plates (paper plates are mixed with plastic to make them hold up better) and have their own forever chemicals in them.
Get a pour-over kit (ceramic or porcelain, glass, and metal). We still use paper filters, but make sure they're actually paper.
No polyester clothing, or at least more than 65% or 70% cotton.
There is a hint of Juicero to the concept.
Food:
Water: Air: The typical advice also makes sense: avoid plastics in your clothes and in cosmetics, but I found these not always easy to apply and not as significant as the rest (water, food, air). So here's my bigger point: don't stress over removing all plastics from your life, it'll only make you miserable, pick your battles and make the changes where you can tolerate them, you'll probably be better off than most people.Alternatives are lot less practical or do not offer same advantages. Glass is heavier, less sturdy, possible produces shards that cause immediate damage such as cuts. Most metals need the plastic coating to be non-reactive.
And then products packed in plastic stored in inert gas last amazingly long time. Which is very big selling point for many customers.
Microplastics could be a proxy for diet. Which is why we need more studies!
I think it's because of this and how expensive, inconvenient, and possibly dangerous the alternative is. There's a lot of risk of illness in food handling, and things like one-time use containers and disposable gloves have done a lot to help.
The phenomenon is worth studying, but it's not hugely surprising given how ubiquitous they are (another thing you find in every human, probably in higher quantities, is sand). But despite tons of scrutiny, there are no studies showing that it's actually hurting us.
We've done some really sketchy things in the early days of industry (leaded gasoline, etc), and have gotten into this overdrive where we're jumping the gun on a lot of substances that are probably not bad. Every year, you have several headlines in the mold of "X is everywhere and might be killing us"... but never really followed by that "oh yeah, it was really killing us" part.
> But our brains are designed to keep things out ... researchers behind the brain plastics study think the tiny shards of plastic hitch a ride on fat molecules to get [past the blood-brain barrier] inside brain cells ... The researchers estimated that the average brain studied had about seven grams of microplastics in it.
Having 7g of _anything_ foreign inside my brain seems like cause for concern to me.
Conclusion: "Parachute use did not reduce death or major traumatic injury when jumping from aircraft in the first randomized evaluation of this intervention."
It's hard to scientifically prove some things!
"The main analytical method used in this study was pyrolysis gas chromatography-mass spectrometry. This method can give false results when used to measure plastics because fats (which the brain is mainly made of) give the same pyrolysis products as polyethylene (the main plastic reported)"
And then you have something like this: pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32882126
It is infuriating how many times this needs to be said. Too many people pretend this is not a problem.
Kids that has been eating the 'healthy' "bio" food had, on average, unhealthy amounts of lead, heavy metals and other chemicals in their blood. The kids that didn't eat "bio" food didn't.
So I ask you, where should the average EU person go to?
https://dupri.duke.edu/news-events/news/20th-century-lead-ex...
Asbestos? Cigarette smoke? BRUH lol.
Because people value convenience and low costs over most risks. It's actually amazing that Organic food has found as much traction as it has with the increased cost and less convenient shopping.
I'm not surprised about this one. Store tomatoes look really nice, but have no flavour, and it's noticeable with other fruits and veggies too.
People like to make fun of me for buying organic (yes, I know it's not quite what the marketing leads you to believe -- especially depending on its origin) but I do believe it's worthwhile for the environment, me and especially for my kids.
We have scientific studies that also state that having plastic in your blood steam and organs, is okay. So unless we focus research on how plastics are affecting us, just studies saying we found plastic in xyz aren’t going to get us anywhere beyond “we should probably do more research on this”.
> Because people value convenience and low costs over most risks
Enough plastic in your brain has to make you value convenience as your brain dies, but I don't want to know the amount.
OTOH, people have a hard time thinking abstractly, so new phenomenons like that take time to grow. But look at nuclear, once loved then hated… Group thoughts & culture evolve with time so we never know.
this feels like a disingenuous categorization to me. there are sustainability, ethical, supply chain, and other environmental considerations that impact why one might choose organic food. i don’t always, but am lucky to have the budgeting flexibility to choose fancy single-origin coffee or other things with “perceived value”
it feels that comments like this betray a desire to look down on others more transparently than choosing to shop at Whole Foods does
"But it's expensive!" Yes. Properly disposing of waste costs money.
The dirty secret is that a LOT of it is tire dust.
We're addicted to our cars. It isn't going to get better.
Just enjoy the ride while you can. There is no hope to fix anything.
When the last tree has been cut down, the last fish caught, the last river poisoned, only then will we realize that one cannot eat money.
A thousand years from now, the Earth will look like Mars, and humans will live in a ring of satellites around the sun.