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?

  • SpaceNoodle@lemmy.world
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    3 months ago

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

  • a lil bee 🐝@lemmy.world
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    3 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.

    • Blue_Morpho@lemmy.world
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      3 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.

            • Apathy Tree@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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              3 months ago

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

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

              • Boomkop3@reddthat.com
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                3 months ago

                A quick google finds me an article going into the measurements taken with the tap water here: it’s so little it’s in the range of a measuring error for none at all.

                I’d have to pour 350 cups of water to find even one particle, if I’m unlucky

            • gravitas_deficiency@sh.itjust.works
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              3 months ago

              This is a “parts per million billion” sort of thing.

              Think of it like PFAS or some other harmful chemical (which, you know, it basically is): the layperson would be categorically unable to get a meaningful measurement from a glass of water, but it can still fuck you (and everyone else) up real bad in the long run.

              • Boomkop3@reddthat.com
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                3 months ago

                The only particles found were really small: 50 microns

                going with that, 350 glasses, 250ml per glass, 1e+12 cubic microns per cm3

                So 1 particle in 3502501e+12/50 cubic microns of water

                according to my calculator that would be about 5.7×10^-10ppm

                aka, next to none

                yes I did the math using the simple example I found on the doc :0

        • Blue_Morpho@lemmy.world
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          3 months ago

          The plastic particles are small enough to enter the cells of your body. No filter can let dirt through and block micro plastics.

          • Boomkop3@reddthat.com
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            3 months ago

            Maybe stop thinking in absolutes and see if blocking 99% makes a difference? You gotta be smarter than to think in black and white

            • Blue_Morpho@lemmy.world
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              3 months ago

              I don’t think you understand how small the particles are. You can’t filter micro plastics out of soil because the micro plastics are the same size as the soil particles. Take a bucket of sand and dye half red. How are you going to filter it?

              There are methods to destroy micro plastics like raising the temp. But that will kill the bacteria in the soil making it sterile.

              • Boomkop3@reddthat.com
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                3 months ago

                They’re there in varying sizes. We’re not looking for perfection. We’re looking for ‘good enough’. And if the place you live is so polluted that you can’t even grab some dirt out of your yard without poisoning your plants… I think you have to get out of there

                • Blue_Morpho@lemmy.world
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                  3 months ago

                  I don’t think you understand the physics of the problem. Have you played connect 4, the game with the checkers that you drop down a slot?

                  Imagine the black checkers are dirt particles and the red checkers are microplastic. The game set with the slots is the filter the particles drop through. Play a game and then open the slider at the bottom to dump the checkers. Do the red checkers stay in the game set while only the black fall out? Of course not, because they are the same size.

                  There is no possibile way to filter the plastic because it is the same size as the dirt in all its different sizes. There are large and small dirt particles. There are large and small micro plastics. If you remove 1% of the microplastic you remove 1% of the dirt, so the remaining dirt is just as contaminated. You didn’t filter it, you only removed an equal amount of dirt and plastic.

                  https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2215016121003095

    • spacesatan@leminal.space
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      3 months ago

      I’ve found bits of plastic trash in almost all of the potting soil I’ve bought. I’m at the point where I think a heavily filtered hydroponic setup is one of the only ways to really minimize microplastics.

  • HatchetHaro@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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    3 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.

  • TheFriar@lemm.ee
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    3 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.

  • Contramuffin@lemmy.world
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    3 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
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      3 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.

  • Chaos@lemmy.ml
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    3 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
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      3 months ago

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

    • Blue_Morpho@lemmy.world
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      3 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
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        3 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/

        • Blue_Morpho@lemmy.world
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          3 months ago

          It’s reddit all over again. The top voted post is wrong. You post correct info with sources and you are buried at the bottom.

          • Carrolade@lemmy.world
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            3 months ago

            I did get to the thread a little late, the top comments were already in place. I also did make the choice to drop my reply in support of someone that was saying something valuable that wasn’t getting much attention, instead of my own op reply.

            It’s Lemmy though, I have a feeling most of us read everything just due to how little there is to read. But yeah, we do share the natural first-commenter advantage thing that reddit has, it’s a weakness of the overall format. AskHistorians created their highly successful sub mainly due to how much this irritated them. lol

  • RBWells@lemmy.world
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    3 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.

  • oxjox@lemmy.ml
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    3 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