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
Related Stories
"Microplastics" is a term used to describe the tiny particles of plastic waste. The problem is that these don't break down organically - they just become smaller (to the molecular level). There's famously the "plastic soup" in oceans that contains such particles.
A recent Norwegian* study looked into the originators of these microplastic. Surprisingly enough: car tyres. There are other sources, but they contribute significantly less. According to the infographic, it breaks down as follows:
- Car tyres: 2250 tons
- Paint/maintenance of ships: 650 tons
- loss from plastic production: 400 tons
- painting/maintenance of buildings+infrastructure: 310 tons
- laundry: 110 tons
- waste treatment: 100 tons
... and some small change.
This means that car tyres alone, by themselves, account for a staggering 55% of microplastic waste.
To put this in perspective: Germans and Norwegians (both) use up about 2 kilos of car tyres per person per year.
Note: These numbers seem particular to Norway - overall yearly production of microplastics seems (unfortunately) vastly greater, see the below-linked German report (table on page 33) for some EU estimates.
* There's apparently a German study corroborating this. The only one I could find is here (English, downloads a PDF).
It took more then 10 months, but today the scientists who blew the whistle on a paper in Science about the dangers of microplastics for fish have been vindicated. An expert group at Sweden's Central Ethical Review Board (CEPN) has concluded that the paper's authors, Oona Lönnstedt and Peter Eklöv of Uppsala University (UU), committed "scientific dishonesty" and says that Science should retract the paper, which appeared in June 2016.
Science published an editorial expression of concern [DOI: 10.1126/science.aah6990] [DX]—which signals that a paper has come under suspicion—on 3 December 2016, and deputy editor Andrew Sugden says a retraction statement is now in preparation. (Science's news department, which works independently of the journal's editorial side, published a feature about the case in March.)
The report comes as a "huge relief," says UU's Josefin Sundin, one of seven researchers in five countries who claimed the paper contained fabricated data shortly after it came out.
Related: Study Demonstrates Harm to Fish Caused by Microplastics (oops)
Arthur T Knackerbracket has found the following story:
Microplastics were found in sea salt several years ago. But how extensively plastic bits are spread throughout the most commonly used seasoning remained unclear. Now, new research shows microplastics in 90 percent of the table salt brands sampled worldwide.
Of 39 salt brands tested, 36 had microplastics in them, according to a new analysis by researchers in South Korea and Greenpeace East Asia. Using prior salt studies, this new effort is the first of its scale to look at the geographical spread of microplastics in table salt and their correlation to where plastic pollution is found in the environment.
"The findings suggest that human ingestion of microplastics via marine products is strongly related to emissions in a given region," said Seung-Kyu Kim, a marine science professor at Incheon National University in South Korea.
[...] The new study, she says, "shows us that microplastics are ubiquitous. It's not a matter of if you are buying sea salt in England, you are safe."
The new study estimates that the average adult consumes approximately 2,000 microplastics per year through salt. What that means remains a mystery.
A separate study by the University of York in Britain that sought to assess the risks of microplastics to the environment, published Wednesday, concluded not enough is known to determine if microplastics cause harm.
[...] That new study, funded by the Personal Care Products Council, an industry trade group, was published in the journal Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry.
Boxall added that the focus on microplastics may divert attention from worse environmental (and more easily identifiable) pollution problems, such as small particles released from car tires.
-- submitted from IRC
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday August 22 2019, @07:56AM (14 children)
Their track record..
1950: Five out of six doctors prefer Lucky Strike cigarettes
1960: Take thalidomode for morning sickness
1970: Paint your baby's cradle with lead-based paint... tastes great!
I'll avoid their recommendation to drink microplastics until all the results are in.
(Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday August 22 2019, @07:59AM (5 children)
They're organic. They must be good for you.
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Thursday August 22 2019, @02:44PM
They don't have to be good for you. They only have to taste good. Deliciously addictive. Please don't question the health benefits when corporate profits are at steak.
To transfer files: right-click on file, pick Copy. Unplug mouse, plug mouse into other computer. Right-click, paste.
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday August 22 2019, @03:28PM (3 children)
Saw a beer advertised as "made with organic alcohol."
(Score: 2) by PartTimeZombie on Thursday August 22 2019, @09:46PM (2 children)
I planted tomatillo seeds last year from a packet labelled "organic tomatillo seeds". I looked, but the shop didn't seem to stock the inorganic ones.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday August 22 2019, @10:27PM (1 child)
I mocked them but there is some small amount of validity, you can be reasonably assured that they won't contain traces of poison from Monsanto and company. Same for seeds, though I would say organic seeds are more ridiculous than organic alcohol.
(Score: 2) by HiThere on Thursday August 22 2019, @10:34PM
Unfortunately not. There is reasonable evidence that seeds coated with nicotinoids produce plants that produce pollen that is harmful to bees. But there's absolutely no labeling requirement.
Javascript is what you use to allow unknown third parties to run software you have no idea about on your computer.
(Score: 3, Informative) by Wodan on Thursday August 22 2019, @09:06AM (2 children)
Sadly drinking and eating microplastics is not optional, they've been found in basically everything.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday August 22 2019, @09:13AM (1 child)
Then we should ban them!
A few fines handed out and we'll be sorted.
Just put the first one on notice. Say for ONE MILLION DOLLARS and everyone will fall into line.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday August 23 2019, @06:33PM
Yes, banning them is the only way. Some things should not be created/used, that is why we have a ban on a lot of chemicals. It does work if you can root out the worst corruption. What is your comment anyway? "They'll do it anyway so fuck it!"???
(Score: 2, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday August 22 2019, @09:23AM (2 children)
I think you're full of shit. If not, provide citations for your claims.
(Score: 1, Offtopic) by DannyB on Thursday August 22 2019, @02:40PM (1 child)
1. More Doctors Smoke Camels Than Any Other Cigarette [youtube.com] So maybe Lucky Strike will have something say about this.
2. Take thalidomide for morning sickness [wikipedia.org] The exact quote is: Researchers at Chemie Grünenthal also found that thalidomide was a particularly effective antiemetic that had an inhibitory effect on morning sickness.[28] Hence, on October 1, 1957, the company launched thalidomide and began marketing it under the trade name Contergan.[29][30] It was proclaimed a "wonder drug" for insomnia, coughs, colds and headaches.
3. While I can find plenty of warnings against using lead based paint for baby cribs, I cannot find any recommendations to use lead based paint.
To transfer files: right-click on file, pick Copy. Unplug mouse, plug mouse into other computer. Right-click, paste.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by FatPhil on Thursday August 22 2019, @04:22PM
2. The only reference to the WHO in that is "the World Health Organization (WHO) stated that it did not recommend thalidomide".
3. mu
Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people; the smallest discuss themselves
(Score: 4, Insightful) by hendrikboom on Thursday August 22 2019, @10:00AM
Was that the WHO itself that said that? Or was it merely widely spread medical "knowledge" that may have been propagated by the drug companies?
-- hendrik
(Score: 4, Interesting) by DeathMonkey on Thursday August 22 2019, @05:46PM
Bullshit!
When Cigarette Companies Used Doctors to Push Smoking [history.com]
That's eighteen years before the WHO even existed.
(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!
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Gaaark on Thursday August 22 2019, @12:37PM (6 children)
Won't hurt humans at all!
Except, what will you eat when it kills off all the fish...and birds...and animals...and insects...and plants...and YOU were dead...and YOU were dead...and I'll miss you WHO most of all....
--- Please remind me if I haven't been civil to you: I'm channeling MDC. ---Gaaark 2.0 ---
(Score: 2) by RS3 on Thursday August 22 2019, @01:43PM (4 children)
By then, scientists will figure out how to bond nutrients to the microplastics and we'll live on them.
Think of them as little washcloths for your innards, tirelessly keeping you clean.
(Score: 1) by NickM on Thursday August 22 2019, @09:22PM (1 child)
I a master of typographic, grammatical and miscellaneous errors !
(Score: 2) by RS3 on Friday August 23 2019, @01:02AM
You can do either, just like baby diapers- buy disposables, or washables. It's up to you.
If you do nothing, they get returned to the environment where they are biologically neutralized by self-limiting bacteria, UV, ozone, cosmic rays, car exhaust, etc., and eventually they make it back into the food chain, thus becoming a welcome new part of the cycle of life.
(Score: 2) by Gaaark on Thursday August 22 2019, @09:59PM (1 child)
You mean to wipe it clean? Liike with a cloth?
--- Please remind me if I haven't been civil to you: I'm channeling MDC. ---Gaaark 2.0 ---
(Score: 2) by RS3 on Friday August 23 2019, @12:58AM
Yes, exactly. I have some microfiber cleaning cloths and they work wonders on outsides, so why not use them for insides?
(Score: 2) by HiThere on Thursday August 22 2019, @10:37PM
That's not what the summary said. What the summary said is "there's no evidence that they are harmful", it didn't say how or whether they'd looked for evidence.
Javascript is what you use to allow unknown third parties to run software you have no idea about on your computer.