Plastic Fibers Found In 83 Percent of World's Tap Water, Study Reveals (theguardian.com)

Robotron23 writes: Research published by Orb Media, a nonprofit journalism group, has revealed that microplastics have contaminated high proportions of drinking water and bottled water. Samples from the United States tested positive in 94% of instances, while Europe's contamination averages around 72%. Tests were undertaken at the University of Minnesota School of Public Health, with lead researcher Dr. Anne Marie Mahon noting the risk of plastics carrying bacteria, and commenting: "In terms of fibers, the diameter is 10 microns across and it would be very unusual to find that level of filtration in our drinking water systems." As for the culprit, the report mentions the atmosphere as one obvious source, "with fibers shed by the everyday wear and tear of clothes and carpets." Another potential source is tumble dryers, "with almost 80% of U.S. households having dryers that usually vent to the open air." Overall, the investigation by Orb Media found that 83% of the samples were contaminated with plastic fibers.

Comments

class action lawsuit

[Anonymous Coward]

class action lawsuit needed to shut down companies willfully and knowingly poisoning human beings

Re:class action lawsuit

[blindseer]

Yep, they are poisoning them with the dangerous chemical compound dihydrogen monoxide!

Re:class action lawsuit

[bobbied]

That stuff is lethal if you breath it. It kills hundreds of children every year, many times more than firearms! Only takes a few tablespoons to kill you! AND they sell it by the gallon in the grocery store in plastic bottles... This must stop.

Re:responsible parties

[Anonymous Coward]

I think it's trying to communicate... What should we ask it?

Re: responsible parties

[Anonymous Coward]

As usual, you have nothing to contribute to the discussion and instead choose mockery. Are you capable of actually discussing the topic?

80%?

[nightfire-unique]

Something's up with that. I would suspect that 99.9995% of US dryers vent to open air.

Re:80%?

[Hunter-Killer]

80% of households, not 80% of households with dryers.

Re:80%?

[serviscope_minor]

Something's up with that. I would suspect that 99.9995% of US dryers vent to open air.

Don't you have non venting driers in the US? They're substantially more expensive, but also much much more efficient.

Re:80%?

[ls671]

Nope, we even have central vacuum cleaners that throw the air outside.

Re:80%?

[jbengt]

If by more efficient you mean they take twice as long to dry a load half the size.

Re:80%?

[cayenne8]

Even so....are people now wearing plastic clothes??

All my stuff is cotton....what is considered "plastic" clothing that a dryer would vent dangerous lint out...?

Re:80%?

[Quirkz]

Mine vents to the garage. House was built in '81. Seems like they should have known better by then. I'll admit it's sort of nice in the winter, but it's a terrible idea in the summer.

My upstairs bathroom fan vented to the attic, rather than out the roof. Again, I understand that was acceptable at the time, but it seems like a bad idea and we fixed that one.

Re:80%?

[dunkelfalke]

You do realise that nylon has been in use in clothing for 70 years or so? And that synthetic polyamide is only one of many synthetic fiber types?

Re:80%?

[AvitarX]

Nylon isn't uncommon, lots of women's clothing has a mix to give it some stretch.

Re:80%?

[Anonymous Coward]

Nylon isn't uncommon, lots of women's clothing has a mix to give it some stretch.

So then the problem is basically women... Ok, from now on, women aren't allowed to have clothes.

Re:80%?

[Anonymous Coward]

Athletic wear gender neutral, many pants.

Cotton blend is pretty common really.

Re:80%?

[Jon Peterson]

Modern ones use the latent heat of condensation to warm incoming air, saving on electricity. They are about twice as efficient in power terms as a 'normal' dryer, although they do take longer to dry clothes.

Re:80%?

[David_Hart]

Athletic wear gender neutral, many pants.

Cotton blend is pretty common really.

Yes, a lot of T-shirts and athletic clothes are a cotton/polyester blend. Don't forget about blankets, coats, gloves, socks, etc.

Re:80%?

[Anonymous Coward]

Cotton and 100% cotton are different things. Cotton blends are common: that's why modern cotton has a tendency to be "shiny" rather than slightly coarse (which is annoying if, like me, you prefer the less shiny version).

Re:80%?

[Anonymous Coward]

Efficient how? My only experience with a non-venting dryer was in Europe. It had two remarkable features: it seemed to think I wanted to keep the water extracted from my clothes (seriously, what's up with condensing it?), and it was really, really, really, seriously incredibly painfully slooooooooow..

Re:80%?

[cayenne8]

Ok....I wasn't thinking of nylon as "plastic"...just didn't hit the brain right. When I think plastic, I think water bottle or even vinyl type stuff.....

Re:80%?

[dj245]

Modern ones use the latent heat of condensation to warm incoming air, saving on electricity. They are about twice as efficient in power terms as a 'normal' dryer, although they do take longer to dry clothes.

Which means the clothes tumble longer, which increases wear. It's easy to calculate kW-hr saved per year. Evaluating the cost of clothes wearing out slightly faster is a more difficult problem that most people won't be considering. Maybe it is worth it, maybe not.

Re:80%?

[dunkelfalke]

Well, you certainly have heard of polyester clothing. That is exactly the same plastic that is used for water bottles, this is what makes bottle reclycling so practical.

Re:80%?

[serviscope_minor]

Nope, we even have central vacuum cleaners that throw the air outside.

Just like Eltham Palace then?

http://www.english-heritage.or...

(search for vacuum)

Re:80%?

[serviscope_minor]

If by more efficient you mean

I mean "by using less electricity", which is a pretty common usage.

Re:80%?

[Anonymous Coward]

Nylon, polyester, orlon, rayon, etc. All common clothing materials.

Re: 80%?

[Anonymous Coward]

A lot of Europeans do something else while waiting for their clothes to dry.

Re:80%?

[Anonymous Coward]

Dryers suck. I much prefer line or rack drying. It's much more hygienic, cost effective and prolongs the life of clothing.

Re: 80%?

[Anonymous Coward]

If I had that amount of time I would have just hung my clothes up and gone out for the day like I usually do at home. As it was I had a train to catch that afternoon and just wanted my clothes dry before packing.

I have reverse osmosis filtration

[Anonymous Coward]

Cheaper, cleaner and more convenient than bottled

tap water

[Anonymous Coward]

I feel slightly less paranoid for having reverse osmosis for the last 20 years. Not saying a dash of plastic doesn't add some spice to my diet, but I get enough crap in my diet as it is.

You must be joking.

[Anonymous Coward]

That makes no sense. Bottled water is bottled in plastic. The plastic leeches into the water. Maybe you were just trolling.

*I*, on the other hand, distill my drinking water myself, and store it in stainless steel. This of course does not guarantee no plastic...as some parts of the still are plastic and there are obviously moments of exposure to the atmosphere.

However, it means I am drinking far less plastic than all of you.

It is a strangely popular but completely false notion that distilled water makes you sick (by leeching minerals from your body, by being acidic from exposure to the atmosphere, or other stupid reasons). These are patently false, and based on a terrible failure to grasp the concept of order-of-magnitude.

But I won't bother with the details here. People love their false facts, and will argue to the death to defend them.

Re:You must be joking.

[Anonymous Coward]

No sir, I only drink Perrier.

Re:You must be joking.

[Anonymous Coward]

Because benzene plastic.

Re: You must be joking.

[Anonymous Coward]

Drink urine. Problem solved.

Re:You must be joking.

[supercell]

This is why I only drink my urine.

Re:You must be joking.

[Presence Eternal]

That's not how (most) plastics work. You may be thinking of additives such as phthalates and bisphenols. In fact most premium bottled waters are filtered by reverse osmosis, which would actually deal with the particles the article discusses.

Actually, the article kind of implies we might get most of our plastic exposure via inhalation...

Re:You must be joking.

[Anonymous Coward]

People love their false facts, and will argue to the death to defend them.

That's what will push Hillary's new book to the top of the best sellers list. To me it's another welcome nail in the democrat's coffin. But people are stupid and will vote for them anyway. Life goes on...

Re: You must be joking.

[Anonymous Coward]

Deionized water does that.

Re:You must be joking.

[Anonymous Coward]

In fact most premium bottled waters are filtered by reverse osmosis, which would actually deal with the particles the article discusses.

That is complete crap. Most bottled water comes straight from tap with a small minority actually going through additional filtration. RO is a comparatively slow and expensive process and does not scale well enough for mass purposes. I ought to know, I use RO to produce water for my multi-thousand litre marine fish tanks.

Re:You must be joking.

[Presence Eternal]

I'll bet you ten bucks I can find a common brand of bottled water that explicitly says it uses reverse osmosis.

Re:You must be joking.

[Anonymous Coward]

I'll bet you ten bucks I can find a common brand of bottled water that explicitly says it uses reverse osmosis.

I'll bet you a hundred I can dispute your definition of "common".

Re:You must be joking.

[Presence Eternal]

You'd lose, then weasel out of it with some sophistry as to what 'can dispute' meant. I'd take the bet if I could hold you to it though.

Re:You must be joking.

[TimothyHollins]

Deal. Find me a single bottle that says it uses sisomso.

Re:You must be joking.

[Presence Eternal]

It was a pun!

Re:You must be joking.

[TimothyHollins]

Wait, you did the pun? I thought I did the pun.

Re:You must be joking.

[Anonymous Coward]

Only a simpleton would take a story about plastic contamination and politicize it. Congratulations, you moron.

Re:You must be joking.

[drinkypoo]

In fact most premium bottled waters are filtered by reverse osmosis,

What the fuck does this phrase mean, premium bottled waters? You're just setting up to move the goalposts later. The fact is that most bottled water is only carbon and mesh filtered.

Re:You must be joking.

[Presence Eternal]

I meant "most premium" in terms of the most commonly purchased branded waters, as opposed to generic grocery store gallon jugs. Coke (Dasani), Pepsi (Aquafina), and even Walmart (Great Value Purified) all explicitly say they are reverse osmosis filtered waters. Nestle is another big player, but they're a little ambiguous saying they use reverse osmosis "and/or" other methods.

Here's a chart about branded water sales. "Private label" means "grocery store brand":
https://www.statista.com/stati...

I encourage you to examine it in great detail and write a rebuttal. Maybe google some bottled water facts. Really dig in and tear my logic to shreds, I'm sure there's flaws aplenty to nitpick. Take your time, I'll read what you have to say and/or watch television.

Re:You must be joking.

[drinkypoo]

The short answer is that the statistics don't tell the story, not least because bottled water which doesn't cross state lines is exempt from oversight. That means that only in California do you even theoretically even have the right to know what's in most of the water that's on the shelf. Most bottled water is (as you say) produced by major beverage companies that have bottlers in every state. They can say whatever they want, nobody has the right to check up on them.

Re:You must be joking.

[hord]

I'll bet you won't. RO is expensive and wasteful. You throw away as much water as you clean. Chemical treatment is how large volumes of water are treated.

What you will find on bottles of water are municipality and regional agreements with established treatment plans. You are drinking tap water from a different city in a plastic bottle most of the time.

Re:You must be joking.

[Applehu Akbar]

Community well water here, but we have to treat it to remove natural arsenic.

Re:You must be joking.

[Anonymous Coward]

You're the one claiming that you can identify a "common" brand of bottled water that uses RO. AC says you can't. Put up or GTFO. I don't think you can.

Re:You must be joking.

[TheRealMindChild]

Great Value Bottled Water

Re:You must be joking.

[Dthief]

notice those are all capitalized, as if they arent the method but rather industry secret methods.

Reverse Osmosis Technology = get from tap.

Re:You must be joking.

[TechyImmigrant]

Surely natural arsenic is healthy because it's natural. You could grind up apricot kernels and add it to the water to restore the natural arsenic balance.

Re:You must be joking.

[bluefoxlucid]

"Most premium brands" is a subset of "most bottled water".

Re:You must be joking.

[Anonymous Coward]

Do you mind pointing us to even one name brand bottled water that comes straight out of the tap?

No, I didn't think so.

Every bottled or canned water I drink is from a mountain (Perrier), a spring (Crystal Geyser), vapour distilled (Smart Water) and/or filtered through reverse osmosis Ralph's/Kroger store water.

I can also prove the differences because I have a water tester. The water straight out of the tap here in LA reads somewhere around 500 PPM, filtered through a Brita it's about 350 PPM, Smart Water is about 13 PPM (due to electrolytes) and Ralph's/Kroger store water is around 0 PPM.

Re:You must be joking.

[Anonymous Coward]

The fact is that most bottled water is only carbon and mesh filtered.

The only bottled water I have seen that just go through carbon or mesh filters is already clean spring or mountain water, not tap water. Water like Dasani, which is tap water *is* filtered via reverse osmosis.

Re: You must be joking.

[Type44Q]

Even the fucking EPA (third-largest pharma-industry sellout, besides the FDA and the AMA) says you're full of shit:

Distilled water, being essentially mineral-free, is very aggressive, in that it tends to dissolve substances with which it is in contact. Notably, carbon dioxide from the air is rapidly absorbed, making the water acidic and even more aggressive. Many metals are dissolved by distilled water.

Re:You must be joking.

[Anonymous Coward]

Not the original AC but Dasani claims to use reverse osmosis and I think by any reasonable standard they would be considered common.

http://www.dasani.com/dasani-water/index.html

Re:You must be joking.

[angel'o'sphere]

Most bottled water is: not filtered at all
Fixed that for you.

Why would one filter Evian, Perrier, Contrex, Vichy etc?

Re:You must be joking.

[angel'o'sphere]

Most bottled water in the US is simply bottled tap water.
They don't process it in any way beyond the way the water utility already has processed it.

SAD, extremely SAD that you don't know that.

Re:You must be joking.

[Anonymous Coward]

LOL! You're really scraping the bottom there for absolutely any kind of tenuous excuse.

Whether it's capitalised or not doesn't matter. If they claim "reverse osmosis" in any way and it's not, they can be sued for false statements. The sane and rational conclusion is that they do in fact filter via reverse osmosis. It's not like it's some rare technology that is difficult to get a hold of. I can run down to my local hardware shop and buy reverse osmosis filters right now.

Seems to me that you're suffering from tap water additive/contamination poisoning and can't think straight.

Re:You must be joking.

[Hylandr]

leeching minerals from your body

Talk to a chemist sometime.

Also, this:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...

Re:You must be joking.

[Anonymous Coward]

Incorrect.

Although Perrier is naturally sparkling spring water, it is actually filtered and carbonation is reintroduced. Contrex being another Nestle brand (like Perrier) is most likely filtered too. Evian is filtered also.

I don't know about Vichy, but Voss is not filtered.

Re:You must be joking.

[Anonymous Coward]

And you've tested them to be able to factually state that or are you talking out of your ass?

FYI, I HAVE tested a number of bottled waters and they are much cleaner than tap water.

Re:You must be joking.

[megamind]

lol

Re:You must be joking.

[Anonymous Coward]

Your article does not discount anything I said about distilled water being safe. It does, however, prove what I said about not grasping the concept of orders of magnitude.

Put simply: marathon runners are at risk for water intoxication even if they drink straight tap water.

The trace amounts of minerals found in tap water don't do squat to replenish the electrolytes that you sweat out. There aren't *nearly* enough. Pennies when you need thousand dollar bills. Whether it is distilled, tap, or bottled water; they must add electrolytes in order to avoid electrolyte depletion.

Re: You must be joking.

[Anonymous Coward]

You have been frightened by worlds that lack numbers.

Example: pure water has a PH of 7 (neutral). Once it is exposed to carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, it absorbs some of it and becomes acidic. How acidic you say? typically 6.5. Sometimes as low as 6.

You know what is more acidic than that? A banana. PH of 4.5.

This is measured on a logarithmic scale. Do you know what that means? A banana is 100 times more acidic than air-exposed water.

Does eating bananas leech calcium from your body and deplete your bones? Hardly. That's what I meant about orders of magnitude. They MATTER.

Incidentally, soda is around a ph of 2. Thats over 10,000 times more acidic than water. People drink several cans a day and they are fine.

And about it being "aggressive..." another scary word with no numbers to say what it means.

As soon as it hits your body, your body mixes it with electrolytes. Boom, pacified.

Afraid of loosing your precious electrolytes? Eat one bite of broccoli. Just one. Per gallon or so of water you drink. You'll be golden.

(unless you are running a marathon or something, in which case you need actual electrolyte water, not bogus trace-amounts "smart" water that won't do you a darn bit of good).

Re: You must be joking.

[Anonymous Coward]

Hi welcome to the internet

Re: You must be joking.

[Anonymous Coward]

Uh, and Aquafina... both use RO amongst other processes. Both are fairly ubiquitous. I dare say you'd struggle to find a business selling water bottles that doesn't carry either.

Re: You must be joking.

[Anonymous Coward]

PPM of what?

Usually people leave off the unit of measurement, you left off the subject of measurement.

Re: You must be joking.

[Anonymous Coward]

Actually, considering it's advertised on the bottle, the FTC can certainly investigate them for false advertisement.

The big "oh wow" years ago was that most bottle water had the conception that it came from some exotic or prestigious water source due to pictures and what not. Well, most people now realize that most bottle water comes from municipal water sources. The bottled water that claims it's filtered... should be filtered.

If you think these waters aren't being filtered through the processes they advertise then you should really go buy a bottle of Dasani and Aquafina right now, have it tested, find contaminants that shouldn't exist and hire an attorney. You're about to be rich after you sue both Pepsi and Coke for false advertisement and damages.

Re: You must be joking.

[bestweasel]

In the US? Either lead or High Fructose Corn Syrup.

Re:You must be joking.

[Applehu Akbar]

When a city starts to fluoridate its water for dental heath, sometimes this means lowering the level of natural fluoride in the water. So much for the hippies' "industrial rat poison" theory.

Re: You must be joking.

[Anonymous Coward]

Uhh, particulate matter. Are you really that stupid?

It's Dietary Plastic Week on Slashdot!

[93 Escort Wagon]

First we had the story of fish eating plastic; and now there's this one about humans drinking plastic. Plus we've still got three more days for the climactic ending - I can't wait!

Re:It's Dietary Plastic Week on Slashdot!

[freeze128]

It will probably be "Child eats hot dog, poops fidget spinner!"

Re:It's Dietary Plastic Week on Slashdot!

[Quirkz]

So ... what you're saying is, fish get their plastic from eating us?

Re:It's Dietary Plastic Week on Slashdot!

[thegarbz]

climactic ending - I can't wait!

Spoiler alert it's humans eating fish who drink plastic.

This isn't new

[Anonymous Coward]

Here's an article from 2011

http://www.sciencemag.org/news/2011/10/laundry-lint-pollutes-worlds-oceans

Also from 2011

http://morgellonsdiseaseawareness.com/morgellons_photo_galleries/morgellons_fibers_in_water_supply

These fibers might actually explain Morgellon's Disease which is currently understood as a form of delusional parasitosis.

The second link says filtration and boiling don't work but reverse osmosis removes 95%.

If only bacteria could be engineered to eat this shit...

Re:This isn't new

[Anonymous Coward]

Plastic eating bacteria would completely destroy the modern world. Be careful what you wish for.

Re:This isn't new

[Anonymous Coward]

Anime that used this: Arjuna

Re:This isn't new

[Anonymous Coward]

There are already bacteria that eat certain plastics...the modern world hasn't been destroyed.

The modern world is already doing a decent job of destroying itself IMO.

Re:This isn't new

[Anonymous Coward]

I will gladly hear how plastic particles can get through a nano filtration or reverse osmosis filtration as physically there is no way a micro meter particule size can go through the pore size (you understand that for reverse osmosis even Na+ ion cannot go through it....). Is it some form of quantic tunnelling not seen before?

Re:This isn't new

[Anonymous Coward]

E-coli can be made to eat anything. ANYTHING. They typically die out in 4-5 generations though for petroleum derivatives to it is hard to get a lot.

Re:This isn't new

[Gilgaron]

Just because the fibers are ubiquitous doesn't mean that Morgellon's isn't delusional. Wifi is everywhere, but it doesn't mean the people that are allergic to wifi when the activity light is on aren't delusional.

Re:This isn't new

[Anonymous Coward]

Just because the fibers are ubiquitous doesn't mean that Morgellon's isn't delusional. Wifi is everywhere, but it doesn't mean the people that are allergic to wifi when the activity light is on aren't delusional.

You mean those same people who claim that the access point they see if giving them a headache even when it's obviously not powered on or even plugged in?

Re:This isn't new

[Anonymous Coward]

You are correct. Anyone who says plastic fiber or even plastic nanoparticles can get through RO is full of shit, making me doubt everything here.

Re:This isn't new

[Gilgaron]

Ha, I was referring to some study where the people responded to a blinking activity light and not whether the radio was turned on or off. I think usually they fail to respond if it is obvious the device is off but who knows...

Re:This isn't new

[aaarrrgggh]

They don't have to get through the filter; the filter is likely shedding plastic as well at a certain scale roughly proportionate to this.

Re:This isn't new

[HornWumpus]

In the entire world of 'EMF sensitives', there is not one that can reliably identify the box with the powered cell phone in it. Not one.

The problem is that the same group of morons doesn't understand that a 50% success rate when using two boxes isn't proof of their delusion, rather the opposite. Your time is better spent arguing with a brick wall.

Re:This isn't new

[thoughtlover]

If only bacteria could be engineered to eat this shit...

Hell yeah... evolution!

Newly-evolved microbes may be breaking down the plastics polluting our oceans

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sci...

Re:This isn't new

[Anonymous Coward]

Then the question is how many current water treatment facilities use the filtering stages that can filter plastic. The answer is not many, and the issue will not be fixed until the people preparing environmental legislation can get the research, economic analysis and trial data on their desks. The fibers are just the start anyway as the sun breaks them down further.

Re:This isn't new

[Anonymous Coward]

Nah, it's too big for their little mouths.

Re:This isn't new

[Anonymous Coward]

These (hypothetical) bacteria might be why tiny plastic pieces are in our drinking water, not just in the ocean vortices:

It's possible that microbes could be breaking large bits of plastic into microscopic pieces, which may have a more harmful overall impact.

How is this worth posting?

[Anonymous Coward]

Directly looking at the website of the researchers indicates to me that this hasn't been published in a peer-reviewed journal yet. And the quality of the post is egregious: "83% of the samples were contaminated with plastic fibers" means practically nothing if we do not also get to know the size of the samples versus the amount and size of the fibers, and their composition.

The actual research, if and when published, could be very interesting. This grab for views --- not so much.

Re:How is this worth posting?

[Anonymous Coward]

Ayup, if it isn't Google Fibre in the water, then it isn't worth posting.

Re:How is this worth posting?

[Anonymous Coward]

I thought the same thing - how large were the samples and what percentage of that was plastic fibres? It could be 10,000 gallons of water with 0.0001g of plastic fibres, for all we know, it means absolutely nothing, and is presented in such a way that anybody can see it means nothing.

Re:How is this worth posting?

[Anonymous Coward]

So the Slashdot summary is bad but at least the answer is in the article:

The average number of fibres found in each 500ml sample ranged from 4.8 in the US to 1.9 in Europe. [...] The Orb analyses caught particles of more than 2.5 microns in size

Re:How is this worth posting?

[aaarrrgggh]

In more useful terms, the concentration in the US is somewhere below 78 parts per quadrillion today. If my math is anywhere close (which it likely isn't), that means that up to 0.014mg is likely to bio-accumulate in the average human over the course of 80 years through drinking water. Let's triple it to accommodate for plastic bioaccumulated in our foods.

Re:How is this worth posting?

[Anonymous Coward]

Came here to say the same thing. Thanks!

Perhaps I'm just lucky

[Ritz_Just_Ritz]

My home is fed by my own private well and the water gets filtered by a reverse osmosis filtration system. Certainly not foolproof, but plastic fibers are likely the least of your worries in the public water system. I'd be a lot more concerned about pharmaceuticals in the water supply....like anti-depressants.

Re:Perhaps I'm just lucky

[whoever57]

Just wait until a fracker starts injecting waste water into the water table near you .....

Re:Perhaps I'm just lucky

[Anonymous Coward]

You know that not everwhere has deposits that can be fracked out of the ground. Not the original poster, but if you tried to frack for anything in my area, well, you'd be wasting your time as there isn't one bit of shale or any other rock that could be fractured to extract anything useful.

Re:Perhaps I'm just lucky

[Anonymous Coward]

You know that not everwhere has deposits that can be fracked out of the ground. Not the original poster, but if you tried to frack for anything in my area, well, you'd be wasting your time as there isn't one bit of shale or any other rock that could be fractured to extract anything useful.

That's okay. We'll dig a well on your land to dispose of the fracking waste.

Water treatment failing?

[Anonymous Coward]

Sounds like we (US especially) need to upgrade our water treatment facilities. Contact your representatives.

I've thrown my used condoms in rivers

[Anonymous Coward]

It would be funny if they ended up in somebody's glass.

Re:I've thrown my used condoms in rivers

[hackwrench]

The word that came to mind for me was "boring".

Re:I've thrown my used condoms in rivers

[Anonymous Coward]

Is that you Elon?

Re:I've thrown my used condoms in rivers

[Anonymous Coward]

It's too bad for you that you have to use condoms in the 10 micron range.

Re:I've thrown my used condoms in rivers

[Anonymous Coward]

Coney Island whitefish. Try them fried in beer batter.

Re: Bottled Water

[Anonymous Coward]

Nestle thanks you for helping them to profit from stealing Canada's water.

Re: responsible parties

[Anonymous Coward]

Indeed! My goodness gracious i was abhorred at his satirical mockery!

"Contaminated"

[Anonymous Coward]

"We like to say 'enriched'."

BonersHD

[Anonymous Coward]

Another story by Da Chyld Prawdijie

Or maybe it's all the plastic shit we throw away..

[bjdevil66]

Plastic of all shapes and sizes is literally everywhere people go. Take a walk around your neighborhood sometime and just start picking up any random garbage you see. You'll be surprised just how much you pick up in just a few hundred square feet. Plastic pieces of all colors, shapes, and sizes. Bags. Lids. Shards. Parts of toys. Unidentified stuff...

The stranger part to me is that so many educated people don't care at all about the issue, even though it is just as important as climate change and other forms of toxic pollution due to the enormous amounts of it we're putting into the environment every day. Even here, there will be many comments along the lines of, "Yeah, yeah, plastic in the water is bad - but I'm more worried about X in the water."

Pointless

[Anonymous Coward]

Means nothing without mentioning concentrations. By the same logic 99% of water is also contaminated with uranium and cyanide.

Re:Or maybe it's all the plastic shit we throw awa

[Anonymous Coward]

It would have been nice if the plastic was the only thing in the tap water.

This is a bad problem

[Anonymous Coward]

You can see these under a stereoscopic microscope at 160x from most water stored in plastic, then there is the stuff that dissolves, it's all not good

Re:Everything is everywhere

[Sperbels]

If that's how you feel I have some property in Chernobyl you might be interested in.

Useless in vaccuum of information

[aepervius]

It does not matter if they found 4.9 microfiber of size below of 2.5 micrometer. The question is : does it have a significant impact on biological activity of human at those level, and is it below or above the legally set quantity ? That is the correct question. If the answer is no, then my own comment is "meh ?".

Re:Useless in vaccuum of information

[djinn6]

Plastics that don't dissolve in stomach acid won't get absorbed by the intestines, so I imagine they'll just pass through. Breathing it in is probably worse for you. Some fibrous materials like asbestos can cause cancer. The complication is how many different kinds of plastics there are, some might be entirely harmless, others not so much.

Re:Useless in vaccuum of information

[AxeTheMax]

Plastics don't have to get dissolved to have effects; they can absorb or discharge other substances. The discharge may well be affected by acidity. So it is a serious concern. See http://www.motherjones.com/pol...

Re:Useless in vaccuum of information

[Anonymous Coward]

You asked 2 questions so there can be 4 sets of answers at least if you account only for yes/no combos.

Re:Useless in vaccuum of information

[Freischutz]

It does not matter if they found 4.9 microfiber of size below of 2.5 micrometer. The question is : does it have a significant impact on biological activity of human at those level, and is it below or above the legally set quantity ? That is the correct question. If the answer is no, then my own comment is "meh ?".

Meh? this stuff is fucking up the world's marine ecosystems in a big way which is not really something they need in addition to overfishing, toxic dumping, increasing salinity and acidity, ... the list goes on ... all of this is resulting in a major extinction event. You must be one of those a Republican voting Fox News drones who thinks nothing nature does that is detrimental to life on this planet is important unless nature is doing it on your golf course and it's killing off the grass.

Re:Useless in vaccuum of information

[Anonymous Coward]

"Breathing it in is probably worse for you. Some fibrous materials like asbestos can cause cancer."

Yes, and dynamite blows you up, and petrol burns you, etc.etc.
We all know that asbestos causes cancer, what does that have to do with plastic fibres? Absolutely nothing. Stop spreading misinformation and alarmism.

Re:Useless in vaccuum of information

[Anonymous Coward]

It does not matter if they found 4.9 microfiber of size below of 2.5 micrometer. The question is : does it have a significant impact on biological activity of human at those level, and is it below or above the legally set quantity ? That is the correct question. If the answer is no, then my own comment is "meh ?".

A legally set quantity has fuck all to do with your health if one of the intentions is to manufacture illness and/or death.

Do not be ignorant of methods of population control.

Re:Useless in vaccuum of information

[zifn4b]

The question is : does it have a significant impact on biological activity of human at those level, and is it below or above the legally set quantity ?

Well, that would require a more deeper analysis into the effectiveness of the human lymphatic system to remove impurities from the body and the results might be... less sensationalist...

Re:Useless in vaccuum of information

[Gilgaron]

Oh I dunno... I'd actually be concerned if it made it far enough into your body that the lymphatic system got involved at all...

Re:Useless in vaccuum of information

[zifn4b]

Oh I dunno... I'd actually be concerned if it made it far enough into your body that the lymphatic system got involved at all...

You know what's remarkable to me? We are relatives of Chimpanzees and Bonobos. Once upon a time we were out in the wild eating rancid raw meat and drinking from contaminated water sources on a regular basis much the same as other animals. From an evolutionary standpoint, we evolved to be able to deal with a lot of impurities being filtered out as a matter of survival. Now granted, we do see evidence that at some point we have lost some of our ability to do this. For example, our appendixes no longer work and I believe that was the means by which we used to be able to break down and digest bones.

We live in a time where large parts of our society do not realize that we are animals and when we were more primitive we were very much like other animals. I'm sure when we were more like Chimpanzees and Bonobos we scratched our butts and flung poop at each other. It's as if our delusional society thinks everything ought to be sparkling pristine clean and completely pure when there is a mountain of evidence to suggest that is not a natural state in the universe. It's completely irrational.

Re:Useless in vaccuum of information

[Anonymous Coward]

False. This is NOT the "stuff fucking up the world's marine ecosystems in a big way". This is microfibers of size below 2.5 micrometer.

Hint: look at the pictures where they show the extent of the problem with marine life and plastics. Pay attention to the fact that you can in fact see the plastics with naked eye. Proceed to noting that biggest impact is in fact the size of the plastics - deaths are overwhelmingly due to fairly large pieces of plastic getting stuck in the digestive tract, commonly killing target with infection or hunger due to inability to eat from said blockage.

Now look at what kind of size "2.5 micrometer plastic fibre would be" and stop thinking this piece of FUD has any relevance to "stuff fucking up world's marine ecosystems in a big way".

Re:Useless in vaccuum of information

[Anonymous Coward]

I'd be pretty concerned if they actually punched all the way there. By far the most common fate of plastics swallowed by mammals is that they pass through the digestive tract and exit without ever getting absorbed in any meaningful way.

That's why we don't just open up kids who accidentally swallow a small piece of non-sharp plastic that's isn't coated in something extremely toxic to try to get it out. It'll come out in a day from the other end.

Re:Useless in vaccuum of information

[Anonymous Coward]

Yeah, but as we stopped living like wild animals, we started living a lot longer. The increased lifespan has proven quite popular. The current habits of humans are just as "natural" as those of apes. As you yourself suggest, an animal adjusts to its environment, with bodily changes that can happen surprisingly rapidly, in just a few hundred years, or even quicker for simple organisms like bacteria. The separation of phenomenon into natural and artificial is ultimately a cultural distinction. Your flesh doesn't care if you wear man-made fibers as clothes, or if you live with a robotic heart, or if your apples are bred using radiation or genetic insertion.
I'm rambling, and I actually agree with the main point of your statement, which is, I think, "people are probably tougher than we currently act like."

Re:Useless in vaccuum of information

[Anonymous Coward]

Slightly off topic, but I agree with "large parts of our society do not realize that we are animals," and I find this amazing and disturbing whenever I ponder it. People perceive and live in such abstracted worlds. Is it delusion or just process optimization?

It can be frightening to consider that every random human you encounter is living in an abstracted parallel universe of their own, rather than the one you understand. How can you anticipate any of their behaviors? It's a bit like wondering if every dog you encounter might be rabid...

Re:Useless in vaccuum of information

[zifn4b]

Yeah, but as we stopped living like wild animals, we started living a lot longer.

We live a lot longer because of the random genetic mutation that enabled our higher cognitive functions that allowed us to out-smart our natural predators not because we are more resilient against our natural environment.

Re:Useless in vaccuum of information

[Anonymous Coward]

You're fooling yourself if you think our life expectancies are not higher due to the trappings of civilization. Food production, shelter, medicine, sanitation practices, and less violence from our human peers are all huge impacts. Take a modern human out of all of this and put them in a "natural" environment and their evolved genes will not provide the same benefits. They'd have to bootstrap all that social knowledge through many generations of savage living and untimely deaths all over again...

Re:Useless in vaccuum of information

[Gilgaron]

I've read that you can slowly acclimate your microflora to increasingly rancid meat. But you see the same with, say, the life expectancy of a well cared for dog vs a wolf.

Re:Useless in vaccuum of information

[butchersong]

There is quite a difference between substances we evolved to deal with ingesting over millions of years and new foreign materials though. I would think that as a rule, we'd want to err on the side of "this is unsafe until proven so" rather than the other way around.

Re:Useless in vaccuum of information

[angel'o'sphere]

While water is usually not pure,
it is astonishing how pure water in the wild actually is.

Water that is polluted with feces and other human waste: that is a complete different story.

Re:Useless in vaccuum of information

[angel'o'sphere]

Well, some would rather call it "fermented" ;D

Re:Useless in vaccuum of information

[zifn4b]

You're fooling yourself if you think our life expectancies are not higher due to the trappings of civilization. Food production, shelter, medicine, sanitation practices, and less violence from our human peers are all huge impacts. Take a modern human out of all of this and put them in a "natural" environment and their evolved genes will not provide the same benefits. They'd have to bootstrap all that social knowledge through many generations of savage living and untimely deaths all over again...

Agriculture and making food perish more slowly, sure. Shelter... eh, I'd like to see statistics about the effect of "advanced shelters" on life expectancy. Medicine, as I said we conquered our natural predators which includes micro-organisms (think vaccinations). That had a huge effect on life expectancy. Sanitation, would like to see how significant this has been on life expectancy. I'm sure it had some impact but if we threw it on the pie chart of contributing factors, it's probably a sliver. "Less violence", I'd like to see the evidence of that. We haven't given up war yet. We are still fighting over religion quite furiously. I'm speaking of the human race in general not just so-called "first world countries".

Some of the things you're referring to don't have as much impact on individual life expectancy as you might think. They are more for allowing for larger population growth by increasing the supply of things. It would be wise to differentiate between the two things because they are two very different things.

Re:Useless in vaccuum of information

[HornWumpus]

Sanitation 'cured' many of humanities endemic diseases. Cholera to start. Was the #2 killer on average, just after TB. Huge 'sliver'.

Re:Everything is everywhere

[Presence Eternal]

Pripyat would have been the classier comeback.

Re:Or maybe it's all the plastic shit we throw awa

[Anonymous Coward]

Well this you can actually change but it is garbage and it is not Trump's fault so no glory.

Re: Everything is everywhere

[Anonymous Coward]

If that's how you feel I have some property in Chernobyl you might be interested in.

Oh, do tell. If you read the article then you should see the level they were testing for would be equivalent to about 100,000 times less than the radiation in a banana.

You know the meme. Idiot.

Re:Fake news

[Kiuas]

Liberal alarmist cultural Marxism tosh.

MAGA!

Yeah, those fucking hippy liberal cultural marxist with their absurd desires to drink pure water! What a bunch of losers and whiners. Real men drink their water with as much contaminants as humanly possible, because real men are not pussies!

Unfortunately the tap water here in liberal leftist Finland is ruined by the same liberals, it's way too pure for my levels of masculinity, so I carry a bag of ground plastics with me that I can then mix into my drinking water. My co-workers were confused by this and asked what I was doing, I told them I'm making Finland great again!

Lucky you,with Trump and his awesome stance of 'fuck the environment' your tap water will likely become 'ugely better still. If you're really lucky you'll get a whole bunch of awesome and delicious additives á la Flint like lead. I'm so envious.

Re:Fake news

[houghi]

Plenty of people will read the article and will not drink tap water, but will buy even more bottled water.

I have tried to explain to my parents that the water they had from their tap was extremely good quality. Yet they still bought into marketing and fear and dragged bottled water from the store while they where in pain from arthritis and chemo.

When I saw the 'non profit' part, I start to wonder who funded the research.

Real men, water, contaminants

[Anonymous Coward]

> Real men drink their water with as much contaminants as humanly possible, because real men are not pussies!

But they might *become* pussies because of that ;-)

- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...
- http://agsci.psu.edu/aec/resea...
- https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/p...
- https://www.naturodoc.com/libr...

I know, I know: real men don't "do" science. Science is for pussies!

Thank you for your post and for its fine double irony. Now tell me: Did you see this second level? Then I must bow in awe before you!

Re:Real men, water, contaminants

[Johann Public]

Surely anyone who has any respect for Science must see this as vindication for the unfairly malinged mild-mannered Water Filter Salesman Bill Hic- I mean, Alex Jones!

Re:Or maybe it's all the plastic shit we throw awa

[AmiMoJo]

One of the worst sources of plastic pollution is cosmetics and shower gels. Some companies put tiny plastic beads into them for texture/exfoliating. Some of the more responsible manufacturers have agreed to stop using them.

Re:Or maybe it's all the plastic shit we throw awa

[Nidi62]

Even here, there will be many comments along the lines of, "Yeah, yeah, plastic in the water is bad - but I'm more worried about X in the water."

I'd be more worried too if I found out there was Ecstasy in the water.

No, it does not...

[Anonymous Coward]

They have not tested all the worlds water supplies. 83% of TESTED water supplies. Which turned out was not very many.

Hoax, debunked already

[wimg]

The contamination source was a combination of the people who collected the water samples (not researchers, just people all around the world), the containers in which the water was stored and transported, and the research lab which was not up to standard at all.

Re:Fake news

[hey!]

Not coincidentally, common plastic additives are xenoestrogens. Yes, that's the reason your penis is probably smaller than Grandpa's.

Academics

[Dunbal]

Fucking academics who have never left a schoolground and gone to a construction site.

Plastic fibers are coming from the air.... as opposed to leaching off from those miles and miles of PVC conduit water has to run through before getting to your tap.

Re:Academics

[Anonymous Coward]

Actually the sewer pipes are made of PVC. For drinking water pipes High Density Polyethylene (HDPE) or Polypropylene (PP) is used coming from virgin material. You need those polymer chains to be long and resistant in order to cope with the pressure.

Re:Academics

[Anonymous Coward]

I'm sure that the water erodes the pipes some, but I would guess that the amount added by the pipes is dwarfed by what is already in there.

Disclaimer: I have no data.

Re:Academics

[Anonymous Coward]

Wrong. I work in the field. Both HDPE and PVC is used in sewer and drinking water.

Re:Academics

[Anonymous Coward]

Fucking know-it-alls who never learned anything in biology.

PVC water pipes are very quickly covered in biofilm (look it up), so they won't be leaching anything.

Dust

[zifn4b]

I bet most of the water we drink is contaminated by dust too! We should put environment protections in place against the dust epidemic!

Re:Dust

[fox171171]

I bet most of the water we drink is contaminated by dust too! We should put environment protections in place against the dust epidemic!

A lot of dust falls to Earth from space every day. Time for a planetary shield. Meanwhile, stop littering plastic everywhere.

Re:Fake news

[burtosis]

Totally agree, it's so clean it's making the frogs gay.

150 samples isn't enough to be "World's"

[TheOuterLinux]

They're not even specific as to where exactly they got the samples from. I need a PDF with a DOI number. Plastic found in plastic bottles?! NO..... Did they even test anyone's well water or or it just city drinking fountains? We don't know because they name people and only about a handful of numbers and no specifics but plenty of "We are all doomed." Maybe as a Linux user, I'm used to having source code, but I think I'd like to see the research paper for this.

Reverse osmosis

[dindi]

Get a filter. A coarse + fine + reverse osmosis filter gets that micron size out.

Add a UV steriliser for $70 or so and that kills most if the living stuff.

I have well water with 100-140ppm of solids and my filter makes it 2ppm water.

It is a PITA though. Super slow even with dual osmosis cartridges it takes 2 minutes to fill a pitcher.

Re:Reverse osmosis

[Anonymous Coward]

You remind me of that utter moron of a person who emptied a huge reservoir of water after finding out that a couple of teenagers pissed in it.

Because as we all know, fish just gets out of rivers to take a piss and a dump, and birds are real careful to hold it in while they're flying over same body of water, so our biology is not actually built specifically to withstand that.

Re:Reverse osmosis

[Anonymous Coward]

Wait, what? Because he isn't stupidly drinking filthy water like you, he reminds you of someone else who did something entirely different and unrelated to anything mentioned in all of the comments here?

You need mental help because you are out of your fucking mind. It's probably all of that lead and mercury poisoning you got by drinking dirty water.

Re:Or maybe it's all the plastic shit we throw awa

[jbmartin6]

I have often said, all the accumulated crap is more of a threat to humanity than climate change. I started thinking about it reading about the effects of salt buildup in waterways due to winter road treatment

May be the used plastic bottles for sampling?

[HaaPoo]

is it possible they used recycled plastic bottles to sample the water? 83% seems high.

An undersink filter will get it

[RobinH]

In March I installed one of these undersink filters which is rated at 0.3 micron. That's a particularly good one unless you go with reverse osmosis. 0.3 micron will filter out bacteria, but not viruses. Obviously it will filter out these 10 micron plastic fibers too. So far the filter has lasted this long with no change. Even a more basic undersink filter will typically filter down to 5 microns.

Re:An undersink filter will get it

[Anonymous Coward]

There are apparently filter bags one can stuff clothes in before washing to prevent the plastic from entering the waste water as well.

Re:An undersink filter will get it

[RobinH]

As someone who deals with "processes" at work a lot, if I had a choice between getting *everybody* who does laundry to start using these bags, or implementing a solution at the wastewater treatment level and the dryer-exhaust-filter level, I think it's a no-brainer. I would never try to change everyone's behavior if I can implement a systemic change instead.

Re: responsible parties

[DontBeAMoran]

Your "topic" is nothing but a bit of the current thread topic filled with 90% of ethnic slurs. Start by calling people what they are instead of using slurs and insults.

Re:responsible parties

[DontBeAMoran]

I'm pretty sure he means "computer users". I bet he's a smartphone addict.

Someone should tell the researchers about

[Anonymous Coward]

DHMO - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dihydrogen_monoxide_hoax

Survival of the fittest

[Anonymous Coward]

I don't understand the problem. The kids drinking water that can't correctly digest will die off quicker, the ones that can digest plastic will live on. Pretty soon we'll be munching that coke bottle after a refreshing drink and complaining about the diminishing food supply mass floating around in the ocean.

Re:Everything is everywhere

[Sperbels]

Eh, I would have researched a little better if I wasn't responding to an obvious troll.

Re:Or maybe it's all the plastic shit we throw awa

[thegarbz]

Some of the more responsible manufacturers have agreed to stop using them.

So no one then.

Fortunately they'll all start soon as legislation will slowly force the issue.

Plus

[MrKaos]

It's got vitamin C in it.

Re:Plus

[freeze128]

It's got what plants crave.

Re:Plus

[MrKaos]

Part of a balanced diet!

Plastic is an issue why?

[bobbied]

I'm just curious, what's the issue with ingesting plastics? They exist in the environment because they are very stable, what is the issue?

Sometimes I think folks get all crazy about "man made" == "Not Natural" == "Bad for you" assumptions. This isn't always true.

Re:Or maybe it's all the plastic shit we throw awa

[phantomfive]

They've been banned in California fwiw.

What does "contamination" mean?

[Anonymous Coward]

Is "contamination" just "something that is not water?" Or is it "something that is not water that has been proven by reputable research to be harmful to life?"

I think this is one of those cases where it is the former rather than the latter.

The left went after fossil fuels and failed. Then they went after CO2 and failed. Now I guess "microplastics" are going to be the next environmental bogeyman for the left to go after.

So, let's cut to the chase. Show me your hockeystick.

Re: California bans everything

[Anonymous Coward]

The State of California has determined that breathing is carcinogenic.

Re: responsible parties

[Anonymous Coward]

Moran. Is that you?

Re:Or maybe it's all the plastic shit we throw awa

[Anonymous Coward]

You have me convinced. We need to stop with all this plastic production. We can drink water out of the tap like they did in the 80s. We can stop producing automobiles and get around on bicycles. We can get our electons from nuclear energy. I am all for it. 8 years of Obama talking about climate change have not convinced me fossile fuel was bad. But this story has me wanting to give up fossil fuel world wide. I really really want to see liberal holier than though types have to stop buying their bottled water. You know red necks aren't drinking the shit. It is all those city slickers that drink their Perrier water while trying to run bicyclists off the road in their SUVs.

Re:Or maybe it's all the plastic shit we throw awa

[Anonymous Coward]

Why IS plastic in the water bad? We can get sicknesses from the bacteria on the plastic?

plastic in plastic water bottle

[Khashishi]

I don't know if plastic microfibres are somehow different than regular plastic, but considering that the water in plastic water bottles always tastes like plastic, I don't know how big a difference it makes. The taste isn't some homeopathic magic. I mean, if it tastes like plastic, that means you are drinking plastic.

So you suggest vigelante action?

[Anonymous Coward]

If class action lawsuit is so ridiculous, the only other option for redress would be the ammo box. You think that a better option?

Re: Everything is everywhere

[Anonymous Coward]

What article was testing for radiation? I must have missed that portion on microplastics...

Re:Or maybe it's all the plastic shit we throw awa

[Anonymous Coward]

Those have been banned in the US since 2015.

Does it matter?

[argStyopa]

Is there something particularly insidious about plastic as a substance that makes it harmful?

We animals have evolved for millennia breathing/eating/drinking dust of all sorts of sizes.

The human body is not perfect, but nevertheless amazing in its ability to keep the good stuff, dispense with the bad stuff.

Is there something about plastic dust that hurts us more than other dust? Or is this just another family of particulates that happen to be out there now, where (for example) soot used to be?

Re:Fake news

[wyHunter]

As opposed to liberals, who buy water from fiji, shipped across the pacific, with an incredible carbon footprint and dubious purity. Sheesh.

Re: California bans everything

[Anonymous Coward]

100% correlation between breathing and death from cancer.

Why it's potentially bad, from TFA

[schitso]

Mahon said there were two principal concerns: very small plastic particles and the chemicals or pathogens that microplastics can harbour

Once they are in the nanometre range they can really penetrate a cell and that means they can penetrate organs, and that would be worrying

Couple other potential concerns listed as well. Articles do sometimes contain useful context.

Re: Bottled Water

[Anonymous Coward]

This is why I only drink vodka.