How to breathe in fewer microplastics in your home
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Re: How to breathe in fewer microplastics in your home
#2I wonder when and if microplastics will get it's Asbestos moment. Obviously they are not as carcinogenic, but it seems we don't have the full picture, and microplastics are present at an insanely higher degree than asbestos where.
Re: How to breathe in fewer microplastics in your home
#3https://archive.ph/UcCq6
Saying HEPA filters remove "99%" of microplastic is pretty misleading.
Most of the mass in airborne particles is in the larger sizes of visible dust. However these particles will "fall out" before they reach the air purifier.
The best advice isn't "use only HEPA" or (an odd one, from this article) "use filters with multiple stages," it's to have an air purifier where the Clean Air Delivery Rate (CADR) is matched to room size. For filtering large dust you need a lot of air flow, aim for 6-8 Air Changes per Hour (ACH).
Also the CADR on the box is always on the highest fan speed, which is always way too loud for constant use in an occupied room. So ideally you want to size the air purifiers assuming a fan speed generating 45 decibels or less. HouseFresh is an excellent review site that publishes these numbers.
Most people dramatically undersize their air purifiers, or run them on a very low fan setting, and then they throw up their hands and say that air purifiers don't work.
Re: How to breathe in fewer microplastics in your home
#4I wonder when and if microplastics will get it's Asbestos moment. Obviously they are not as carcinogenic, but it seems we don't have the full picture, and microplastics are present at an insanely higher degree than asbestos where.
TV ads 20 years from now: "If you or a family member have suffered from Spandex Kidney, you may be entitled to compensation..."
Re: How to breathe in fewer microplastics in your home
#5[dead]
Re: How to breathe in fewer microplastics in your home
#6Realistically, the best thing you can do to reduce your microplastics intake seems to be to avoid microwaving in plastic bowls and to avoid using plastic bottles for soft drinks and water. (Though cans actually use a thin film of plastic inside too.. so, maybe just avoid packaged water?)
Beyond your personal intake though there's bigger fish.
Car tyres are the #1 source for microplastics entering rivers, and it's not even close (they're thought to be the source of up to 85% of all environmental microplastics).
Those particulates don't just vanish, they end up in the soil and the waterways and it ends up inside you, no matter what you do.
Re: How to breathe in fewer microplastics in your home
#7https://archive.ph/UcCq6 Saying HEPA filters remove "99%" of microplastic is pretty misleading. Most of the mass in airborne particles is in the larger sizes of visible dust. However these particles will "fall out" before they reach the air purifier. The best advice isn't "use only HEPA" or (an odd one, from this article) "use filters with multiple stages," it's to have an air purifier where the Clean Air Delivery Ra…
The therm "microplactics" includes particles up to 5mm. And I think the bulk of the material is probably made of these larger particles. But I guess you're less likely to inhale something that large. So while air filters will remove most of the plastic you might inhale, you will still have to clean up most of the mass of microplastics in your house.
Re: How to breathe in fewer microplastics in your home
#8I wonder when and if microplastics will get it's Asbestos moment. Obviously they are not as carcinogenic, but it seems we don't have the full picture, and microplastics are present at an insanely higher degree than asbestos where.
Given the fact that they are so ubiquitous and yet no causal relation between microplastics and any health issue whatsoever has been identified in any rigorous study until today [1], I'd say a lot of this reporting is fear mongering by the eco/organic industry, aimed at gullible people who know very little about science. Not as insane and unphysical as electro smog, but definitely nowhere near asbestos. The linked article even goes into detail how warped the perceptions are among the general population and how doctors should educate people better, because there are real risks from other things out there. If you're really concerned about health effects of common pollutants, there are much bigger risks with actual proven causal effects in everyday compounds.
Re: How to breathe in fewer microplastics in your home
#9https://archive.ph/UcCq6 Saying HEPA filters remove "99%" of microplastic is pretty misleading. Most of the mass in airborne particles is in the larger sizes of visible dust. However these particles will "fall out" before they reach the air purifier. The best advice isn't "use only HEPA" or (an odd one, from this article) "use filters with multiple stages," it's to have an air purifier where the Clean Air Delivery Ra…
You don't really want to use HEPA either, you want to maximize airflow.
PC fans with low MERV type filter do great since the smaller the particle (I think this effect kicks in below 5 microns) the better it is at filtering it so if it can pass 10 times more air than a hepa filter it's as effective as one while being able to filter more air faster and keeping the particles airbone.
The only downside is that small range of particles where lower merv filters aren't good enough to filter so upwards of 70% of the particles pass through
Re: How to breathe in fewer microplastics in your home
#10I wonder when and if microplastics will get it's Asbestos moment. Obviously they are not as carcinogenic, but it seems we don't have the full picture, and microplastics are present at an insanely higher degree than asbestos where.
I think microplastics has been directly linked to the decrease of male hormones and an sperm quality.
source: https://link.springer.com/article/10.1186/s12989-022-00453-2
So, it's having an effect of some kind.