Punk in Finland

Microplastic contamination has been found in tap water in countries around the world, leading to calls from scientists for urgent research on the implications for health.
Scores of tap water samples from more than a dozen nations were analysed by scientists for an investigation by Orb Media, who shared the findings with the Guardian. Overall, 83% of the samples were contaminated with plastic fibres.
The US had the highest contamination rate, at 94%, with plastic fibres found in tap water sampled at sites including Congress buildings, the US Environmental Protection Agency’s headquarters, and Trump Tower in New York. Lebanon and India had the next highest rates.
European nations including the UK, Germany and France had the lowest contamination rate, but this was still 72%. The average number of fibres found in each 500ml sample ranged from 4.8 in the US to 1.9 in Europe.

The scale of global microplastic contamination is only starting to become clear, with studies in Germany finding fibres and fragments in all of the 24 beer brands they tested, as well as in honey and sugar. In Paris in 2015, researchers discovered microplastic falling from the air, which they estimated deposits three to 10 tonnes of fibres on the city each year, and that it was also present in the air in people’s homes.

How microplastics end up in drinking water is for now a mystery, but the atmosphere is one obvious source, with fibres shed by the everyday wear and tear of clothes and carpets. Tumble dryers are another potential source, with almost 80% of US households having dryers that usually vent to the open air.
“We really think that the lakes [and other water bodies] can be contaminated by cumulative atmospheric inputs,” said Johnny Gasperi, at the University Paris-Est Créteil, who did the Paris studies. “What we observed in Paris tends to demonstrate that a huge amount of fibres are present in atmospheric fallout.”
Plastic fibres may also be flushed into water systems, with a recent study finding that each cycle of a washing machine could release 700,000 fibres into the environment. Rains could also sweep up microplastic pollution, which could explain why the household wells used in Indonesia were found to be contaminated.
In Beirut, Lebanon, the water supply comes from natural springs but 94% of the samples were contaminated. “This research only scratches the surface, but it seems to be a very itchy one,” said Hussam Hawwa, at the environmental consultancy Difaf, which collected samples for Orb

Why Heavy Metal Hat? wrote:No tällä on väliä, jos on terveysvaikutuksia. Muovihan poistuu elimistöstä. Olen kyllä itse melko varma, että jotain vaikutuksia on, joska eihän noi mikromuovipalaset eroa (muista) pienhiukkasista, muuta kuin sillä, että ne ovat käytännössä kokonaan reagoivaa hiiltä ja pinnalla on varmaan kaikenmaailman myrkkyjä. Toisaalta en usko siihenköön, että muovi syrjäytettäisiin tuotteista.

gnu/turd wrote:

Why Heavy Metal Hat? wrote:No tällä on väliä, jos on terveysvaikutuksia. Muovihan poistuu elimistöstä. Olen kyllä itse melko varma, että jotain vaikutuksia on, joska eihän noi mikromuovipalaset eroa (muista) pienhiukkasista, muuta kuin sillä, että ne ovat käytännössä kokonaan reagoivaa hiiltä ja pinnalla on varmaan kaikenmaailman myrkkyjä. Toisaalta en usko siihenköön, että muovi syrjäytettäisiin tuotteista.

Joo siis tosiaan artikkelissa mainittiin hypoteesi, että mikromuovi voi kuljetella myrkkyjä ympäri elimistöä, mutta tutkimusta pitkäaikaisista terveysvaikutuksista ei vielä ole valmiina.

Alaska Thunderkalmu 5000 wrote:[youtube][/youtube]

Why Heavy Metal Hat? wrote:Toisaalta en usko siihenköön, että muovi syrjäytettäisiin tuotteista.

Ananaskääpiö wrote:

Why Heavy Metal Hat? wrote:Toisaalta en usko siihenköön, että muovi syrjäytettäisiin tuotteista.

Mihin asioihin vaikuttais jos esim. muovipakkaukset korvattais "pahvi"-, lasi- ja metallipakkauksilla?

Ananaskääpiö wrote:
Muovihan on noin periaatteessa hemmetin asiallista materiaalia kaikkine alalajeineen.