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?
It’s too late to avoid them. Microplastics are being found literally everywhere on the planet.
Afaik it tends to concentrate further up the foodchain, so keeping meat, especially fish, out of your diet will help. Particularly filter feeders like shrimp and anything that eats those.
I’d also like to add that wrapping food in plastic reduces waste considerably, so you might want to look into that and balance your view against that.
In what way does wrapping food in plastic reduce waste?
It’s better to look into it yourself, as I’m not knowledgeable on the topic.
Afaik a significant portion of all food is wasted by supermarkets, restaurants, and at home. Wrapping it in a thin foil keeps it fresh and extends shelf life considerably. So it’s important to weigh all these things in order to find what’s best environmentally.
Further, it might be the type of plastic that’s safer for food and is trivial to recycle. It’s also very thin and soft and so that might require a lot less resources to produce compared to harder and thicker plastics. For example a plastic bottle might contain more plastic than say the wrapping of 100s of paprika’s. Just pulling those nrs from the air but it’s just to give a rough idea.
Use only textiles made of cotton, wool or linen (I recommend linen in summer and wool in winter, since cotton isn’t very good at conserving your body heat), look for a bamboo toothbrush, avoid foods in plastic packaging (this can sadly be difficult) and only put them in ceramic, metal or glass containers.
I assume your goal is to minimise the amount of microplastics inside your body, so the materials that touch your food are a priority. The amount of microplastics in your food or drink also depends on how long they are in contact with plastic. For example, if you have juice in a plastic bottle, drinking it right away or putting it in a plasticless container would probably result in less microplastics than storing it in the said bottle.
If you are more concerned about nature, try shopping at second-hand stores.
Do you have a source for this? Can hardly imagine putting leftovers in a tupperware style container will get microplastics in the food. Unless your scraping it like a wildman with utensils.
The heat releases BPA from the plastic which will leech into the food
https://www.ucsf.edu/news/2024/02/427161/how-to-limit-microplastics-dangers
Thats a nice article thanks. But it does not answer my question.
Sure heating stuff in plastic doesn’t sounds good but storing in plastic… I can hardly imagine the plastic to just dissolve into to the food. Especially if the food is solid.
Still interested if somebody has a solid source for this.
Here’s another article that has more sources
It’s important to keep in mind that nothing is really ‘static,’ the molecules consisting of the plastic and food are still vibrating and decaying into its local environment due to entropy, everything is to some extent. While strong and resilient, plastic molecules will still ‘leech’ out. The concern is more to what extent. High temperatures and liquids would be the highest risk factor, while low temperatures and solids would be much lower.
I think storing solids in plastic at room or cold temperatures are fine. But I avoid microwaving or storing hot items in plastic and opt for glass or ceramic instead. Our entire bodies are already compromised with micro plastics so for me it’s just about minimizing exposure when I can
On Mars.
In the past
…ures of plastic waste
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.
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.
Nice! I’m glad it all worked out in the end!
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Clothing and textiles from natural fibres. No rubber tires as they are major shedders of micro plastics.
Where are you supposed to get tires not made of rubber?
Drive less would best the recommendation. Though I feel this doesn’t directly help yourself so much as everyone.
well then fuck that then, I only care about myself …
Trains use steel wheels (unless the government is in the pocket of Big Rubber, like the Michelin trains in Paris)
That would work great on cars too, all we need is all the roads to be as smooth and even as steel rails.
How to find tires made out of actual rubber?
They do still contain a good portion of rubber; the natural type farmed from trees.
Is that why they can still call themselves “rubber”?
I had a similar thought, but when I looked into it, the difference between natural and oil based rubber is not significant. Natural rubber would be just as bad.
It’s a polymer just like synthetic rubber. It isn’t like other natural products. Wood can rot because it’s made of cellulose, but rubber can’t. Nothing eats it.
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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.
Don’t cook with Teflon or otherwise coated pans. Stainless steel, carbon steel or cast iron (can be enameled).
You can’t completely avoid them, but avoiding plastic food/drink containers is an easy thing to do. Good for the environment too, not just your health.
I sure do miss glass bottles.
probably because they’re clear
No, acshually…
<GROAN>
Damn dad jokes…
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
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.
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Cement is porous, those microplastics will get in eventually.
