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Microplastics found in 93% of bottled water tested in global study

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Re: Microplastics found in 93% of bottled water tested in global study

#361

Post by lucb1e »

e12e wrote: post #358
lucb1e wrote: post #356

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The author's name is a spoiler? Yeah because it would spoil the book. By mentioning the book nor the author, you don't realize that you know the spoiler until you've already read 90% of the book. In case someone does want to know, in rot13: vasreab ol qna oebja

How would you buy or borrow this book without knowing the name? Ed: having rot13 that, I still don't see how it's a spoiler...

You wouldn't be able to get the book, that wasn't the point of the comment. I'd have liked to be able to recommend the book, but then we can't talk about its conclusion, and the book also isn't that much in depth (it's mostly entertainment). If I wanted to mention the author or title, I'd have to put the situation description behind some kind of spoiler protection and only those who want to be spoiled or read it already would be able to take part in the discussion.

I don't understand what's unclear about spoilers: what I described (a part of the world population infertile) is only revealed in the final like 10 pages of the book.

Perhaps I shouldn't have mentioned that there is a book at all, since it isn't super in depth anyway. But I also don't want to pass it off as an idea of my own.

Re: Microplastics found in 93% of bottled water tested in global study

#362

Post by not_alex_archer »

linuxftw wrote: post #352
cortesoft wrote: post #330

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That is still an overly broad category to be worried about in general... just because something is synthetic doesn't mean it is more or less dangerous than a non-synthetic thing.

Non-naturally occurring chemicals, or at least chemicals that we weren't traditionally exposed to in great abundance. Like laundry detergent and conventional shampoo. Those are probably terrible for the environment. When we ban one, companies just create another one.

It's not really pedantic because toxicity is in the dosage

Re: Microplastics found in 93% of bottled water tested in global study

#363

Post by Varriount »

SomeOldThrow wrote: post #348
Varriount wrote: post #283

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But they never said that microplastic had "no" toxic effects, just no immediately visible ones.

Just curious, what does “immediately visible” mean?

> I think people around the world have been ingesting microplastic for 30 years or longer, yet there's no reported case of any direct toxic effects. So I guess microplastic doesn't have immediately effects on health

In this case, 30 years? Or, taken in another light, it doesn't have effects that are visible on the time-scale of known substances such as lead, arsenic, mercury, etc.

In addition, the parent also stated this:

> I won't be surprised if future studies find longterm effects, such as increasing the risk of cancer, damage to the circulatory system or the brain.

Re: Microplastics found in 93% of bottled water tested in global study

#364

Post by ryanmercer »

cwkoss wrote: post #236
ryanmercer wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Humans aren't the only thing that will be directly affected though. Microplastics are effectively forever and are already in aquifers and falling from the sky like rain/snow. That means all life is going to become more and more exposed to microplastics as more and more breaks down. Sure, maybe it'll be not be so bad for a random human but what happens when this stuff starts getting into single cell and small organism…

Several groups are working on engineering fungi to digest plastics, seems like a great idea to me.

Yeah but that has its own issues. Instead of worrying about your steel car rusting, now you'll have to worry about washing it regularly to keep whatever they make from landing on your car/siding/computer monitor/clothes/carpet/curtains/blinds/window molding/etc from being weakened.

Re: Microplastics found in 93% of bottled water tested in global study

#365

Post by ant6n »

nosianu2 wrote: post #327
ant6n wrote: post #299

Earlier quoted context omitted.

(that's carbonated water in glass bottles)

Since the parent comment says "Germany" I can say with confidence: We have both, so that qualifier is not true unless you specifically buy exactly carbonated water. It is true though that for whatever reason that I just cannot comprehend the majority of water sold in bottles in this country (Germany) is carbonated. nor can I understand why so much of it is sold - tap water is very good in most places. I know a water…

There may exist non-carbonated water in glass bottles, but non-carbonated water isn't that popular: In 2014, only 13% of water sold was 'still', but only 23% all water sold was sold in glass bottles [1]. Given that most still water comes in plastic bottles, I'd say the amount of still water sold in glass bottles is rather small.

[1] https://www.spiegel.de/wirtschaft/unternehmen/mineralwasser-...

Re: Microplastics found in 93% of bottled water tested in global study

#366

Post by mastazi »

peteretep wrote: post #288
mastazi wrote: post #219

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In Bali, Thailand and many other places in SE Asia, you can get water that comes from local treatment plants (it usually looks like this[1]) instead of "brand" bottled water (like these ones[2]), the former is almost always bottled locally (at the nearest water treatment plant, they are ubiquitous in SE Asia even in regional areas, sometimes they are subsidised by governments), as a result the water tends to stay in…

Surprised you didn’t mention the ubiquitous bring-your-own-container 1 baht water vending machines in Thailand too, which as I understand it are doing ad-hoc filtering: https://m.alibaba.com/product/137674491/Water-Vending-Machin...

Yes you are right, those are another very good example of locally treated water, my Thai relatives live in a rural area where the “gallon bottles” are more commonplace so I forgot to mention those machines.

Re: Microplastics found in 93% of bottled water tested in global study

#367

Post by linuxftw »

not_alex_archer wrote: post #362
linuxftw wrote: post #352

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Non-naturally occurring chemicals, or at least chemicals that we weren't traditionally exposed to in great abundance. Like laundry detergent and conventional shampoo. Those are probably terrible for the environment. When we ban one, companies just create another one.

It's not really pedantic because toxicity is in the dosage

Toxicity is one measure. What about endocrine disruption? What ability long-term effects like cancer? And that's just for humans. We don't know how some of these compounds that end up in our waterways are affecting marine line.

Re: Microplastics found in 93% of bottled water tested in global study

#368

Post by coldtea »

ant6n wrote: post #299
bonoboTP wrote: post #196

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There's a lot of glass bottled water too, at least in Germany.

(that's carbonated water in glass bottles)

Nope, there's both plain (table, mineral) and carbornated water available in glass.

Re: Microplastics found in 93% of bottled water tested in global study

#369

Post by coldtea »

cakemuncher wrote: post #350
Xylakant wrote: post #335

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> It is true though that for whatever reason that I just cannot comprehend the majority of water sold in bottles in this country (Germany) is carbonated. When I was a kid, my parents would only buy carbonated water. Still water was available from the tap. Today, I stopped buying even that, I can carbonate my water myself. As to why we buy so much bottled water: Marketing. Some waters have a distinct taste, but at lea…

How do you carbonate water yourself?

There are all kinds of pressurized gas devices to use:

https://www.amazon.com/SodaStream-Sparkling-Water-Starter-Si...

Re: Microplastics found in 93% of bottled water tested in global study

#370

Post by _jal »

seppin wrote: post #309
_jal wrote: post #260

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you want to actually look up your local results from the source of that article, https://www.ewg.org/tapwater/

And what exactly can one do if the results are terrible?

Depending on specific circumstance: buy filters, find alternate sources, move.
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