- Realistically, the best thing you can do to reduce your microplastics intake seems to be to avoid microwaving in plastic bowls and to avoid using plastic bottles for soft drinks and water. (Though cans actually use a thin film of plastic inside too.. so, maybe just avoid packaged water?)
Beyond your personal intake though there's bigger fish.
Car tyres are the #1 source for microplastics entering rivers, and it's not even close (they're thought to be the source of up to 85% of all environmental microplastics).
Those particulates don't just vanish, they end up in the soil and the waterways and it ends up inside you, no matter what you do.
- Half the microplastics in our body is from cars. So move to a car-free city district or remote cabin (and then driving train+bike so not to contribute to the problem?).
- What amazes me about the plastic health debacle is that any rational decision making process would have identified these compounds as entirely novel, with no evolutionary correlate. The precautionary principle should have applied; the burden should have been on corporations to prove these compounds safe. Instead, they were incorrectly assumed to be safe, deployed at scale, and now the burden is on us to deal with the impacts.
This was an experiment run without consent, and without accountability. Much like our experiment with atmospheric CO2, these companies are making profits by dumping the liabilities onto the public.
- I wonder when and if microplastics will get it's Asbestos moment. Obviously they are not as carcinogenic, but it seems we don't have the full picture, and microplastics are present at an insanely higher degree than asbestos where.
by schiffern
3 subcomments
- https://archive.ph/UcCq6
Saying HEPA filters remove "99%" of microplastic is pretty misleading.
Most of the mass in airborne particles is in the larger sizes of visible dust. However these particles will "fall out" before they reach the air purifier.
The best advice isn't "use only HEPA" or (an odd one, from this article) "use filters with multiple stages," it's to have an air purifier where the Clean Air Delivery Rate (CADR) is matched to room size. For filtering large dust you need a lot of air flow, aim for 6-8 Air Changes per Hour (ACH).
Also the CADR on the box is always on the highest fan speed, which is always way too loud for constant use in an occupied room. So ideally you want to size the air purifiers assuming a fan speed generating 45 decibels or less. HouseFresh is an excellent review site that publishes these numbers.
Most people dramatically undersize their air purifiers, or run them on a very low fan setting, and then they throw up their hands and say that air purifiers don't work.
- I'm all for improving indoor air quality (IAQ), but microplastics are a very minor concern compared to other pollutants (VOCs, CO2, etc.). Filtered outdoor air exchange is the best fix for most of them.
- I wonder if this means that going to the gym is a huge source of exposure then. Enclosed environment with rubber mat flooring and weights constantly banging against it..
- Is there a brand that makes pullovers / hoodies, that are made 100% from natural materials?
by himata4113
0 subcomment
- If anyone is looking into getting an air filter I recommend winix it was tested by project farm and scored the highest. also I am the owner of two and they've been working great for 4 years now I run them using auto and never worry about them again, the automatic sleep mode is bliss.
replacements are cheap on aliexpress coming at around $30 (per year). You don't need true hepa replacements, you can skip carbon filters if you don't have odor problems or have lots of ventilation.
the filters are pitch black every time I replace them so they're definitely doing something.
I do however recommend skipping all of that and just getting a box fan with a lower-tier merv filter since at the end of the day airflow matters the most and it turns itself back on if the power goes out plus it gives you the ability to tie it into home automation.
by NitpickLawyer
1 subcomments
- I've heard that removing latex gloves when breathing might help...
- Indoor air has way less particulates than outside air. I'll take polipropylene dust over rubber and silicw dust and chimney and tailpipe exhaust any day of the week.
by neuroelectron
0 subcomment
- [dead]
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