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from the does-this-taste-plasticky-to-you? dept.
Microplastics in water not harmful to humans, says WHO report
Microplastics are increasingly found in drinking water, but there is no evidence so far that this poses a risk to humans, according to a new assessment by the World Health Organization.
However, the United Nations body warned against complacency because more research is needed to fully understand how plastic spreads into the environment and works its way through human bodies.
There is no universally agreed definition of microplastics but they are generally considered to be smaller than half a millimetre across.
Plastic production has grown exponentially in recent decades and is predicted to double again by 2025, said the report, which means more beads and threads are breaking down into minute particles and winding up in water supplies, pipes, cups, throats and bellies. Studies suggest bottled drinking water even contains minuscule elements of the polymers used in the container and cap.
Also at CNN.
Related: Car Tyres Cause 55% of Microplastic Waste, According to Study
Paper on Microplastic's Harm to Fish Will Likely be Retracted
Microplastics Found in 90 Percent of Table Salt
(Score: 5, Informative) by JoeMerchant on Thursday August 22 2019, @11:30AM (6 children)
While nobody dies instantly from microplastic exposure, it can be some nasty stuff. If you spend a lot of time on urban freeways, you might notice a black goo on your windshield that simply will not come off for anything short of blasting with walnut shells, this is "microplastics" particles of vehicle tires that get deposited and form a pernicious coating on the glass.
Once in the bloodstream, microplastics will deposit in virtually all organs of the body - we used colored microbeads to do organ perfusion studies on animals, inject one color pre intervention, then other colors during and post intervention, sacrifice the animal, harvest the organs, and blend them to a uniform puree... see whether your intervention changed liver, brain, heart muscle, or other perfusion rates by counting the number of different color microspheres in a measured quantity of the paste.
🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: 3, Interesting) by khallow on Thursday August 22 2019, @12:30PM (2 children)
(Score: 4, Touché) by JoeMerchant on Thursday August 22 2019, @01:12PM (1 child)
For once, I'm with AC on this...
I know, I know, your father smoked Lucky Strikes and doesn't have lung cancer yet, your mother took thalidomide and it fixed her morning sickness right up, not only did your cradle have lead based paint but you also breathed it in the air (as we all did) in the 1970s from the gasoline additives, and look how great you turned out!
🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: 1) by khallow on Thursday August 22 2019, @11:36PM
I'm with FatPhil [soylentnews.org] on this one.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday August 23 2019, @06:04AM (2 children)
"Microplastic" is plastic dust. How exactly is plastic dust scarier than plant pollen, cellulose dust, chitin dust, mineral dust, carbon dust? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dust [wikipedia.org]
If your tap water is badly cleaned, of dust or whatever else, you install a water filter. You are not a lab animal, you can and should care about your own self. BTW, a water filter installation costs MUCH less per year than all the nickel-and-diming the Anti-Plastic Warriors want.
(Score: 2) by RedIsNotGreen on Friday August 23 2019, @10:23AM (1 child)
The other types of dust are ones we've been evolutionarily adapting to for hundreds of millions of years.
In other words, we've already done the beta-testing, and the genetic lottery losers unable to deal with them have gone extinct.
With plastics and other man-synthesized chemicals, it's a whole new game. Some of us may be able to deal, some not.
Do you want to be a beta tester?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday August 25 2019, @07:45AM
Fuck beta!