The microplastic pollution of our soil, food, waterways and oceans is a growing concern. Tiny bits of plastic from various hard plastics and even soft material like polyester is getting into our water and into our soil to grow food.
Every time we wash polyester, tiny fabrics of plastic was away and end up back in the water supply we may end up drinking. All the plastic bottles that hold water are made form soft plastic which leaches endocrine disrupting chemicals into the water that we drink. But this isn't he only source of self-imposed health risks from microplastic.
It turns out we are also eating about 100 microplastic particles at each meal in our homes. This plastic comes from a variety of sources, with most of it likely coming from our home environment. Microplastic depart from their source and end up circulating in the dust that falls onto our plates.
After testing a few homes with sticky dust-trapping Petri dishes placed on the dinner table at meal time, about 14 pieces of microplastic were found in each after 20 minutes. The surface area of the Petri dishes amounts to the equivalent of 114 plastic fibers on each dinner plate. This also translates into 68,415 pieces of potentially dangerous plastic fibers consumed each year just from sitting down to eat.
Some might expect the amount of plastics in the marine environment to be higher than what we consume in household dust, but that isn't the case. Mussels only have about 2 or less microplastics in each.
The researchers don't know exactly where the plastic fibers at mealtime come from. Sources are not likely the cooking environment itself, but more from polyester clothes, fleece jackets, various types of bedding, couches, carpets and car tires. All of these microplastic fibers come from the shedding material as they wear away.
Plastic pollution is increasing, but not much is being done to tackle the issue on an organized social level. We each have to take individual responsibility and change our behaviors and what we buy. We can choose to not buy polyester clothing anymore. We can choose to use only cotton sheets. We can buy non-fleece jackets. We can avoid carpets in homes we build. We can refrain from using many sources of microplastic fibers and greatly reduce the impact it has on our health and the pollution of the environment.
To make the change for the better, don't wait for the authorities to ban things, s if that's the 'right' 'solution. We need to take charge of our own lives and start living consciously and responsibly. If we all vote with our wallets and stop buying this stuff, the manufacturers will respond to that causal force and not make it. The power to change things is in our hands.
References:
- Microplastics in Food Waste, Organic Fertilizers, Soil and Water
- Academic reveals more than 100 tiny plastics in every meal
- Study reveals more than 100 tiny plastics in every meal
- Ana I.Catarino, ValeriaMacchia, William G.Sandersona, Richard C.Thompson, Theodore B.Henrya; Low levels of microplastics (MP) in wild mussels indicate that MP ingestion by humans is minimal compared to exposure via household fibres fallout during a meal; DOI: 10.1016/j.envpol.2018.02.069
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