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?
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.
PFAS are extremely inert, yet they wreak all kinds of havoc in the bodies of humans and animals.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Per-_and_polyfluoroalkyl_substances
Scientists thought, as you say, that them being chemically inert means they wont be dangerous to living creatures. Sadly they were proven wrong on that.
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.
It’s too late to avoid them. Microplastics are being found literally everywhere on the planet.
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.
That’s the neat part, you can’t
😂
Dude they literally pervade the vast majority of the planet’s ecosystem at this point. That ship sailed a long, long time 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.
Become a communist and start advocating for workers to run the economy because we wouldn’t fuck ourselves over like capitalists will.
Short term: grow your own food.
long term: politicsThe 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.
You can’t buy and optionally clean a bag of dirt?
Considering it’s also in the water, probably not, no.
Next to none in my water :p
This is a “parts per
millionbillion” 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.
The plastic particles are small enough to enter the cells of your body. No filter can let dirt through and block micro plastics.
Do you not understand what the prefix “micro” means?
Which has to do with buying a bag of dirt?
The micro plastic is in the dirt. Most commenters here think microplastic means a bit of plastic that broke off packaging.
Microplastic are plastic pieces that you need a strong microscope to see. They can be as small as bacteria.
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2215016121003095
How does that stop me from shopping around to find clean dirt?
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You are going to pay hundreds per bag to send it for testing?
Why don’t you tell me how you think you’re gonna clean literally microscopic plastic fragments out of said dirt?
I think I’ll call around to find some that have dirt with little plastic. I said optional for a reason
Let me put it another way:
Microplastics are so small that they are found in rainwater - as in, they’re found in water collected from precipitation in a pristine vessel. They’re literally everywhere, in every part of our ecosystem and food chain at this point. There is unfortunately no escaping them.
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.
Hydroponics are done with plastic components. I’ve never heard of hydroponics done with glass.
Die
On Mars.
In the past
…ures of plastic waste
Some people here say space, but anything that takes you to space contains microplastics, in fact you yourself contain microplastic. The only way to avoid microplastics is simply to not exist at all. And I don’t mean dying, when you die you still have microplastics in your body.
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
Seal yourself in a sterile cement tube with nothing but filtered air.
Of course you’ll have to have all the microplastics removed from your body 1st, including your GOD DAMN BALLS and BRAIN.
Good luck and God Speed.
Cement is porous, those microplastics will get in eventually.