Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

The Most Disturbing Places We've Found Microplastics So Far

gizmodo.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

41–48 of 48 posts

Re: The Most Disturbing Places We've Found Microplastics So Far

#41

Post by lotsofpulp »

legitster wrote: post #35
lotsofpulp wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As far as I can tell, organic is mostly a mechanism to price discriminate produce and animal products. If you label one organic, then some people will be willing to pay more for it.

That might be more true of other certifications like Fair Trade. Whether you agree with the mission of organic agriculture or not, getting certified for it does come with a lot of expensive extra rules.

I don’t know about other countries, but considering the US cannot even be bothered to continuously perform surprise inspections of the quality of medicines or medicinal manufacturing facilities, or vitamins, I have zero faith in any of those labels, especially from places where the US has no jurisdiction and hence no possibility of consequences.

For all I know, the nicer looking produce gets slapped with an organic label and the less nice doesn’t, creating a visual illusion at the store. This is all ignoring the fact that there is no conclusive proof of “organic” being nutritionally superior.

People like the story of being “in the know” or “beating the system”, hence the utility of these labels. Another one I like is “A2 milk”.

Re: The Most Disturbing Places We've Found Microplastics So Far

#42

Post by stevenwoo »

tmaly wrote: post #30

I am not sure if we will ever purge nature of them. But we could reduce them going forward with better packaging science and use of biodegradable plastics.

We are on an exponential curve of deployment of plastic because it’s cheap, anything else would require research time and money https://education.nationalgeographic.org/resource/worlds-pla....

Re: The Most Disturbing Places We've Found Microplastics So Far

#43

Post by throwup238 »

legitster wrote: post #14

I'm curious - has there been a place yet that hasn't found microplastics yet? Some of the places I have now read about seem so unlikely (archeological dig, deep bore holes, returning spacecraft) that I am now thinking of other plausible alternatives: - some "microplastics" are naturally occurring phenomenon - cannot run a test without the sample being compromised - like the presence of carbon-14 in the atmosphere aft…

> Some of the places I have now read about seem so unlikely (archeological dig, deep bore holes, returning spacecraft)

I think there's good reason to be skeptical of all these results because of contamination. Microplastics are everywhere in a lab from the clothing scientists wear to the sample containers they use to hold everything. The most common consumables like microplates and pipette tips are made out of plastic, covered in plastic, and delivered in plastic.

We went through this same process with DNA in archaeology a few decades ago. Until the equipment was sensitive enough and labs figured out how to properly prepare the samples, they kept coming back with wild conclusions about the stuff they were studying. Stuff like taking live plant matter as controls and then not properly cleaning out equipment before testing the archaeological sample.

It's a hard problem exacerbated by the rush to publish or perish.

Re: The Most Disturbing Places We've Found Microplastics So Far

#44

Post by specialist »

Ferret7446 wrote: post #34
nope1000 wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The harm is hard to assess without a control group.

If the harm is hard to assess, is it worth caring about? At some point the effect becomes insignificant.

Hard to discern. But you already knew that.

Re: The Most Disturbing Places We've Found Microplastics So Far

#45

Post by JackMorgan »

Ferret7446 wrote: post #33
JackMorgan wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is why I switched to a countertop electric water still. It boils a gallon of water in a few hours, then I just refill and plug it back in. The water tastes great too.

That sounds potentially dangerous? Distilled water lacks electrolytes, so you shouldn't drink in large quantities. (And your comment on taste is interesting. Distilled water doesn't taste like anything (except possibly slight tingling if it "burns" your tongue), which is why minerals are often added to drinking water to make it taste "good")

The best numbers I'm seeing for calcium and magnesium indicate that it's only about 10% daily recommended dose in 2L of tap water. I'm pretty confident I'm eating enough veggies to make up for that loss. Also I'm a salt fiend so I get plenty of that from my food.

I find the water from my still tastes actually really good. It's silky smooth, nothing like distilled water that's been sitting in a gross plastic jug for weeks.

So I'm not at all concerned there is any risk at all.

Re: The Most Disturbing Places We've Found Microplastics So Far

#47

Post by Ferret7446 »

JackMorgan wrote: post #45
Ferret7446 wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That sounds potentially dangerous? Distilled water lacks electrolytes, so you shouldn't drink in large quantities. (And your comment on taste is interesting. Distilled water doesn't taste like anything (except possibly slight tingling if it "burns" your tongue), which is why minerals are often added to drinking water to make it taste "good")

The best numbers I'm seeing for calcium and magnesium indicate that it's only about 10% daily recommended dose in 2L of tap water. I'm pretty confident I'm eating enough veggies to make up for that loss. Also I'm a salt fiend so I get plenty of that from my food. I find the water from my still tastes actually really good. It's silky smooth, nothing like distilled water that's been sitting in a gross plastic jug for w…

> The best numbers I'm seeing for calcium and magnesium indicate that it's only about 10% daily recommended dose in 2L of tap water. I'm pretty confident I'm eating enough veggies to make up for that loss. Also I'm a salt fiend so I get plenty of that from my food.

It's not about nutritional intake, but the acute effects of ingesting it. If you put cells in distilled water, the cells absorb water due to osmosis and rupture. There may be some minor risk of chronic damage accumulated to the upper digestive tract (though I'm not an expert).

> I find the water from my still tastes actually really good. It's silky smooth, nothing like distilled water that's been sitting in a gross plastic jug for weeks.

Does it actually taste, or do you just enjoy not having a taste? If it has a taste, it is not entirely distilled; there are residual minerals and substances in it (which negate the potential risks of drinking it, at least from the previous point). However, that kind of defeats the "distilled" aspect of it...

Re: The Most Disturbing Places We've Found Microplastics So Far

#48

Post by JackMorgan »

Ferret7446 wrote: post #47
JackMorgan wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The best numbers I'm seeing for calcium and magnesium indicate that it's only about 10% daily recommended dose in 2L of tap water. I'm pretty confident I'm eating enough veggies to make up for that loss. Also I'm a salt fiend so I get plenty of that from my food. I find the water from my still tastes actually really good. It's silky smooth, nothing like distilled water that's been sitting in a gross plastic jug for w…

> The best numbers I'm seeing for calcium and magnesium indicate that it's only about 10% daily recommended dose in 2L of tap water. I'm pretty confident I'm eating enough veggies to make up for that loss. Also I'm a salt fiend so I get plenty of that from my food. It's not about nutritional intake, but the acute effects of ingesting it. If you put cells in distilled water, the cells absorb water due to osmosis and r…

Reverse osmosis also removes calcium, magnesium, and sodium. So it should be equally "dangerous".

This link does indicate contention, with some people thinking it's dangerous and others not https://biology.stackexchange.com/questions/2250/death-becau...

As to the taste, I guess it's more fair to say it's got a very silky mouth feel, but no taste.

Post reply on HN