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How avoid microplasics?

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?

venusaur ,
@venusaur@lemmy.world avatar

Don’t cook with Teflon or otherwise coated pans. Stainless steel, carbon steel or cast iron (can be enameled).

Perhapsjustsniffit ,

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

venusaur ,
@venusaur@lemmy.world avatar

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

sunzu2 ,

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

kitnaht ,

They do still contain a good portion of rubber; the natural type farmed from trees.

nichtburningturtle ,
@nichtburningturtle@feddit.org avatar

Under your tire

Habahnow ,

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

metaStatic ,

well then fuck that then, I only care about myself ...

evasive_chimpanzee ,

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

Grimy ,

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 ,

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.

SsxChaos ,
@SsxChaos@lemmy.ml avatar

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 ,

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

nondescripthandle ,

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

kitnaht ,

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

metaStatic ,

Ban Hydrogen Dioxide

LaGG_3 ,
@LaGG_3@hexbear.net avatar

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.

Blue_Morpho ,

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 ,

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:

www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8618759/

Water filtration:

www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10054062/

Boomkop3 ,

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

Blue_Morpho ,

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.

Boomkop3 ,

You can’t buy and optionally clean a bag of dirt?

metaStatic ,

Can't wait for the Water World future, these bags of dirt are gonna be worth a fortune.

Boomkop3 ,

Now that’s something to stockpile then

ApathyTree ,
@ApathyTree@lemmy.dbzer0.com avatar

Considering it’s also in the water, probably not, no.

Boomkop3 ,

Next to none in my water :p

ApathyTree ,
@ApathyTree@lemmy.dbzer0.com avatar

There’s next to none in all water, when measured by volume.

But things concentrate, so the 0.00005% adds up over time.

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