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Americans May Be Ingesting Thousands of Microplastics Every Year

smithsonianmag.com

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Re: Americans May Be Ingesting Thousands of Microplastics Every Year

#11

Post by maxxxxx »

vuln wrote: post #4
staunch wrote: post #3

I'd be happy to buy virtually all my packaged food in recyclable glass containers. I buy milk in bottles and return them for a refund and it's easy enough. Amazon could make this move happen pretty quickly with amazon.com and Whole Foods. I'm sure there would be difficulties involved but they don't seem insurmountable.

>shipping glass ... “difficulties” Yeah I’m sure they’d lose a ton of money. Glass is heavy and expensive plus the added liability of it breaking and a consumer reaching their hand inside.

"plus the added liability of it breaking and a consumer reaching their hand inside."

Do people just make this stuff as up as a concern? There are plenty of areas where this is done without problems.

Re: Americans May Be Ingesting Thousands of Microplastics Every Year

#12

Post by RcouF1uZ4gsC »

For everyone talking about the benefits of glass bottles, they have their own dangers.

This study from Children's Hospital of Philadelphia showed that broken glass bottles accounted for 15% of all lacerations in children (the largest single cause) and broken glass bottles most frequently inflicted injuries resulting in functional impairment or hospitalization

https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamapediatrics/article-abst...

There may be a possible danger from plastic bottles over the long term, but widespread glass bottle adoptions is going to result in a lot of lacerated kids.

Re: Americans May Be Ingesting Thousands of Microplastics Every Year

#13

Post by dahfizz »

Do we know much about the impact this has on our bodies?

This is certainly something to be concerned about, but without that context it's hard to know what this really means.

The article says a "microplastic particle" is any peice of plastic smaller than 5mm. That's bigger than some pills - I would definitely notice chewing on something that size.

So how big are these really and what are they doing to me?

For reference, the US and EU both regulate that 10 micrograms per liter of arsenic in drinking water is safe. Using my rusty high school chemistry (please correct me if I'm wrong), this is on the order of ~10^20 particles (atoms) of arsenic per year. That's way way more than 100k and arsenic is more inherently harmful to humans than plastic.

This could easily be genuine epidemic levels of awful, or it could be completely nothing. Does anyone know more?

Re: Americans May Be Ingesting Thousands of Microplastics Every Year

#14

Post by bencollier49 »

vuln wrote: post #4
staunch wrote: post #3

I'd be happy to buy virtually all my packaged food in recyclable glass containers. I buy milk in bottles and return them for a refund and it's easy enough. Amazon could make this move happen pretty quickly with amazon.com and Whole Foods. I'm sure there would be difficulties involved but they don't seem insurmountable.

>shipping glass ... “difficulties” Yeah I’m sure they’d lose a ton of money. Glass is heavy and expensive plus the added liability of it breaking and a consumer reaching their hand inside.

We have milk delivered in glass bottles on our doorstep each morning. No difficulties.

Re: Americans May Be Ingesting Thousands of Microplastics Every Year

#15

Post by chrisco255 »

bencollier49 wrote: post #14
vuln wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>shipping glass ... “difficulties” Yeah I’m sure they’d lose a ton of money. Glass is heavy and expensive plus the added liability of it breaking and a consumer reaching their hand inside.

We have milk delivered in glass bottles on our doorstep each morning. No difficulties.

They still do this in some cities?

Re: Americans May Be Ingesting Thousands of Microplastics Every Year

#16

Post by tyingq »

staunch wrote: post #3

I'd be happy to buy virtually all my packaged food in recyclable glass containers. I buy milk in bottles and return them for a refund and it's easy enough. Amazon could make this move happen pretty quickly with amazon.com and Whole Foods. I'm sure there would be difficulties involved but they don't seem insurmountable.

You can get water in aluminum cans. Pretty common when flying on a plane for example.

Re: Americans May Be Ingesting Thousands of Microplastics Every Year

#17

Post by darkpuma »

vuln wrote: post #4
staunch wrote: post #3

I'd be happy to buy virtually all my packaged food in recyclable glass containers. I buy milk in bottles and return them for a refund and it's easy enough. Amazon could make this move happen pretty quickly with amazon.com and Whole Foods. I'm sure there would be difficulties involved but they don't seem insurmountable.

>shipping glass ... “difficulties” Yeah I’m sure they’d lose a ton of money. Glass is heavy and expensive plus the added liability of it breaking and a consumer reaching their hand inside.

Lots of things come in glass already and it doesn't really seem to be a big deal. Spaghetti sauce, pickles, etc. Nobody thinks twice about any of that.

Re: Americans May Be Ingesting Thousands of Microplastics Every Year

#18

Post by jdietrich »

So? To quote the results of the paper, "the effects of consuming MPs on human health are largely unknown".

I'm just not concerned about ingesting tiny quantities of something that might possibly be harmful, even though we've been looking really hard for harms for quite a long time and haven't found anything of note. My environment is full of stuff that we know to be definitely harmful - could we fix that please, before we start worrying about stuff that might possibly be harmful?

Re: Americans May Be Ingesting Thousands of Microplastics Every Year

#19

Post by serf »

vuln wrote: post #4
staunch wrote: post #3

I'd be happy to buy virtually all my packaged food in recyclable glass containers. I buy milk in bottles and return them for a refund and it's easy enough. Amazon could make this move happen pretty quickly with amazon.com and Whole Foods. I'm sure there would be difficulties involved but they don't seem insurmountable.

>shipping glass ... “difficulties” Yeah I’m sure they’d lose a ton of money. Glass is heavy and expensive plus the added liability of it breaking and a consumer reaching their hand inside.

>Glass is heavy and expensive plus the added liability of it breaking and a consumer reaching their hand inside.

Plastic edges can cut you to the bone pretty easily. Clamshell package victims attest to this year after year.

Can't I just go choke on a plastic bottle somewhere and swing the legal preference back the other way, if that's truly the issue?

I agree with you on the weight aspect though. It'd be difficult to get goods producers to reduce their profits altruistically.

Re: Americans May Be Ingesting Thousands of Microplastics Every Year

#20

Post by kccqzy »

dahfizz wrote: post #13

Do we know much about the impact this has on our bodies? This is certainly something to be concerned about, but without that context it's hard to know what this really means. The article says a "microplastic particle" is any peice of plastic smaller than 5mm. That's bigger than some pills - I would definitely notice chewing on something that size. So how big are these really and what are they doing to me? For referen…

Well for one, a microplastic particle is certainly much bigger than an atom.
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