93

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?

top 50 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[-] tiefling@lemmy.blahaj.zone 112 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago)
[-] SpaceNoodle@lemmy.world 67 points 4 months ago

It's too late to avoid them. Microplastics are being found literally everywhere on the planet.

[-] alilbee@lemmy.world 53 points 4 months ago

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.

[-] Boomkop3@reddthat.com 33 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago)

Short term: grow your own food.
long term: politics

[-] Blue_Morpho@lemmy.world 27 points 4 months ago

The 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.

load more comments (28 replies)
load more comments (3 replies)
[-] HatchetHaro@lemmy.blahaj.zone 21 points 4 months ago

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.

[-] FiskFisk33@startrek.website 5 points 4 months ago

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.

[-] ikilledlaurapalmer@lemmy.world 20 points 4 months ago
[-] ColdWater@lemmy.ca 19 points 4 months ago

That's the neat part, you can't

load more comments (1 replies)
[-] match@pawb.social 16 points 4 months ago
[-] Perhapsjustsniffit@lemmy.ca 15 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago)

Clothing and textiles from natural fibres. No rubber tires as they are major shredders of micro plastics.

[-] venusaur@lemmy.world 11 points 4 months ago

Where are you supposed to get tires not made of rubber?

[-] Habahnow@sh.itjust.works 9 points 4 months ago

Drive less would best the recommendation. Though I feel this doesn't directly help yourself so much as everyone.

load more comments (1 replies)
[-] sunzu2@thebrainbin.org 5 points 4 months ago

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

load more comments (5 replies)
[-] evasive_chimpanzee@lemmy.world 3 points 4 months ago

Trains use steel wheels (unless the government is in the pocket of Big Rubber, like the Michelin trains in Paris)

load more comments (1 replies)
load more comments (2 replies)
[-] Contramuffin@lemmy.world 15 points 4 months ago

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

[-] BowtiesAreCool@lemmy.world 7 points 4 months ago

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.

[-] TheFriar@lemm.ee 15 points 4 months ago

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.

[-] SsxChaos@lemmy.ml 11 points 4 months ago

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.

[-] Azzu@lemm.ee 22 points 4 months ago

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

[-] nondescripthandle@lemmy.dbzer0.com 13 points 4 months ago

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

[-] kitnaht@lemmy.world 6 points 4 months ago

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

[-] metaStatic@kbin.earth 3 points 4 months ago
load more comments (2 replies)
[-] Blue_Morpho@lemmy.world 3 points 4 months ago

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.

[-] Carrolade@lemmy.world 7 points 4 months ago

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/

load more comments (3 replies)
[-] oxjox@lemmy.ml 11 points 4 months ago

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

[-] communism@lemmy.ml 10 points 4 months ago

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.

[-] Shdwdrgn@mander.xyz 4 points 4 months ago

I sure do miss glass bottles.

load more comments (2 replies)
[-] RBWells@lemmy.world 10 points 4 months ago

Move to a different planet? I think this cat is out of the bag, they are everywhere now, it's the lead of the current generation.

The steps you listed seem like reasonable action anyway, but there simply isn't anything you can do to avoid them here.

[-] 01189998819991197253@infosec.pub 9 points 4 months ago

I read an article not that long ago that stated that they're in men's testicles and women's ovaries. In other words, they have become a part of your physical body and will become a part of the bodies of the next generation (likely several generations). They're unavoidable.

[-] Randomgal@lemmy.ca 9 points 4 months ago

That's the fun part. You don't.

[-] jewbacca117@lemmy.world 9 points 4 months ago

Hunt your own food and wear the skins, but even animals have traces of microplastics now so might as well grow naked. traces of microplastics in soil, so that will transfer to any home grown food, so eating is out. you could try distilling your own water but that's the only sustenance you will have. After a few weeks of not eating you should be dead and that is the only true way to be free of microplastics.

[-] Rolando@lemmy.world 7 points 4 months ago

you should be dead and that is the only true way to be free of microplastics.

The microplastics will seep into your corpse.

load more comments (1 replies)

Dude they literally pervade the vast majority of the planet’s ecosystem at this point. That ship sailed a long, long time ago.

[-] kindenough@kbin.earth 9 points 4 months ago

"Plastic came out of the Earth; the Earth probably sees plastic as just another one of its children. Could be the only reason the Earth allowed us to be spawned from it in the first place: it wanted plastic for itself, didn’t know how to make it, needed us. Could be the answer to our age-old philosophical question: “Why are we here?” Plastic, assholes!"

George Carlin.

load more comments (1 replies)
[-] EuroNutellaMan@lemmy.world 8 points 4 months ago

Some people here say space, but anything that takes you to space contains microplastics, in fact you yourself contain microplastic. The only way to avoid microplastics is simply to not exist at all. And I don't mean dying, when you die you still have microplastics in your body.

[-] Canuck@sh.itjust.works 6 points 4 months ago

The two most common sources of microplastics that enter your body are from the vessels you eat/drink from, and from particles in the air from things like clothes, carpets, furniture, linens.

How to avoid? Use stainless steel, aluminum, copper, (or other metals), ceramic, or glass storage vessels for things like water (including your Brita) for warming things in the microwave, or for storing food, and reduce buying things in plastic if you plan on keeping them there for awhile (eg glass ketchup bottle). Replace any plastic water pipes in your wall with good ol copper. My main water vessels are all stainless steel.

For particulate, consider air filtration, buy clothes/furniture/carpets made from natural animal/ sources like cotton, wool, bamboo, avoiding plastics like polyester. That includes your scrubbing utensil for dishes. Your carpets are probably made with some sort of plastic, so if it's too much to do hardwood, or replace with a natural fibre, the Dyson vacuums are good at getting out loose microplastics.

Be warned, one time I almost bought a stainless steel cup from a reputable retailer, and upon further investigation it was just plastic with a steel coating.. Yep, made in Communist China..

[-] Grimy@lemmy.world 5 points 4 months ago

Avoid anything that comes in plastic packaging and distill your own water. You will still need to drink normal water but I can't imagine any municipality is currently equipped to deal with microplastic so reducing your intake is probably a good idea.

Short of moving somewhere very rural and growing all your own food, it is close to impossible.

[-] Imprudent3449@lemm.ee 9 points 4 months ago

As a resident in a pretty rural area you might want to avoid moving to rural areas due to increased cancer rates due to pesticide use and poor water conditions. But don't you worry about our poor corporations that are wrecking shit, our lovely governer passed legislation that prevents people from suing them. though her and the corporations assure us there is nothing to worry about. They pinky sweared and everything.

load more comments (1 replies)
[-] prex@aussie.zone 5 points 4 months ago
[-] hungryphrog@lemmy.blahaj.zone 4 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago)

Use only textiles made of cotton, wool or linen (I recommend linen in summer and wool in winter, since cotton isn't very good at conserving your body heat), look for a bamboo toothbrush, avoid foods in plastic packaging (this can sadly be difficult) and only put them in ceramic, metal or glass containers.

I assume your goal is to minimise the amount of microplastics inside your body, so the materials that touch your food are a priority. The amount of microplastics in your food or drink also depends on how long they are in contact with plastic. For example, if you have juice in a plastic bottle, drinking it right away or putting it in a plasticless container would probably result in less microplastics than storing it in the said bottle.

If you are more concerned about nature, try shopping at second-hand stores.

load more comments (5 replies)
[-] INHALE_VEGETABLES@aussie.zone 3 points 4 months ago

Just embrace them

[-] ampersandcastles@lemmy.ml 3 points 4 months ago

Become a communist and start advocating for workers to run the economy because we wouldn't fuck ourselves over like capitalists will.

load more comments
view more: next ›
this post was submitted on 22 Aug 2024
93 points (92.7% liked)

Asklemmy

44152 readers
1365 users here now

A loosely moderated place to ask open-ended questions

Search asklemmy 🔍

If your post meets the following criteria, it's welcome here!

  1. Open-ended question
  2. Not offensive: at this point, we do not have the bandwidth to moderate overtly political discussions. Assume best intent and be excellent to each other.
  3. Not regarding using or support for Lemmy: context, see the list of support communities and tools for finding communities below
  4. Not ad nauseam inducing: please make sure it is a question that would be new to most members
  5. An actual topic of discussion

Looking for support?

Looking for a community?

~Icon~ ~by~ ~@Double_A@discuss.tchncs.de~

founded 5 years ago
MODERATORS