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Scientists issue dire warning: Microplastic accumulation in human brains escalating
(www.psypost.org)
this post was submitted on 12 Mar 2025
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A relative bright spot amidst a sea of bad news:
Dunno if anyone reading this is still drinking bottled water, but, uh, now you have another reason to not do that.
This would mean any liquid in plastic is a large source. Bottled water has other options, not so much the rest. I mean they could have different packaging and some do, but cost is a reason plastic is primarily used.
glass bottled soda > canned soda > plastic contained soda or fountain drinks
... maybe we will end up with a bottlecap psuedo currency after all.
Aluminum cans have a plastic liner in them to protect the metal from the acidic soda, but I'm not sure if it leaches in the same way as plastic bottles.
Especially things with carbonic or citric acid are probably even worse here
Edit: and we need to keep in mind, the aluminium cans also have a plastic liner inside. So those probably aren't better either...
Shit thing, that glass is so heavy to move around.
And pretty much everything is stored in large plastic containers during production, until it's filled into whatever.
Not sure how we can actually get around this.
The best thing we can do, is probably just reducing the plastic intake, by avoiding plastic bottles, as they are much more prone to decay due to UV light and long term storage.
But well, I guess, we're fucked here as well
I got a soda stream with glass bottles. You can make soda from fruit (lemons and oranges are especially delicious - plus I can control whatever sweetener I use). Also, if you really want cola, then you can get concentrated syrup so there's less plastic and liquid transport overall.
Yeah, having the same thing at home
But I still like beer, fruit juices (and not just syrups) and so on
But the soda stream is quite in use by my wife
Plastic sealed brain is better protected?
The thing is that most of our piping is plastic. So how is tap water so much better?
On average, disposable plastic bottles shed microplastics much more prolifically than plastic water piping.
That would seem to be the explanation on the face of it. Piping is made from heavier duty plastic. But I've heard that PVC can start leaking some nasty chemicals over the decades. Is that better or worse than microplastics?
PVC fell out of use in the 2000s, most buildings use PEX now; but I don't know how that compares.
you mean, they don't use PVC in any new buildings anymore, but older buildings sti have them, right?
I believe I've heard that PEX actually breaks down and starts leeching chemicals into the water faster than PVC. It's also a cheaper material. Most of the houses I'm familiar with are still installing PVC.
You have to remember that plastic containers aren't washed before they are filled with product. That's often where much of the micro/nano plastics come from.
Do you have a source on that? I find it hard to believe we put water into unsanitized bottles.
https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.2300582121
That's interesting and sounds about right. Do you have any links on this subject?
Imma help my brain and switch to a soda fountain at home then. I could just drink water but let's not get too ahead of ourselves
Would my plastic water bottle (reusable) be a problem?
Yes but to a much lesser extent. The act of merely breaking the seal on the cap injects a lot of plastic into the liquid, so skipping that has to count for something
You're right, I misremembered It's not just about breaking the seal on the cap, the mere friction of the cap on the bottle adds the bulk of microplastics found within
I was thinking of an article from years ago where they were talking about macro plastics nearly visible to the eye getting into the liquid from breaking the seal. Can't seem to find it now though
Unless you live in one of the many countries without potable drinking water...also do you think the micro plastics are filtered out? I'm actually asking if they're filtered out
As far as I know, off the top if my head, there are not any affordable, attach to the tap in your sink type filters that actually filter out microplastics.
I may be out of date on that, been about 2 years since I last looked at filters... but yeah, afaik, we have no idea how to effectively filter out microplastics from water at an end user standpoint, as we do for other, older, mkre commonly worried about water pollutants.
... I guess if you fully boiled all your water to the point it is all steam, and then condenses back ti water, in a glass or metal recepticle, that might do something for reducing microplastics, but that is insanely energy and time intensive.
Regular boiling is pretty good! The micrplastics end up sticking to the calcium deposits left behind. Never been so happy for that stupid white buildup in my kettle!
"As reported in ACS’ Environmental Science & Technology Letters, boiling and filtering calcium-containing tap water could help remove nearly 90% of the nano- and microplastics present."
https://www.acs.org/pressroom/presspacs/2024/february/want-fewer-microplastics-in-your-tap-water.html#%3A%7E%3Atext=As+reported+in+ACS%27+Environmental%2Cthe+nano-+and+microplastics+present.
Fuck, that's good news.
Kinda funny that the tried and true 'works good enough' method of boiling water to cleanse it also works for micro plastics.
They won't think it was suicide if I keep drinking bottled water.
I assume soda and other bottled drinks are included in this warning, as well as any other container lined with plastic, and I think some canned drinks and food are….which, uh, sucks.
Yep, even metal-canned sodas have a plastic liner on the inside of them.