Are you worried about microplastics?
Are you worried about microplastics?
I've been more and more conscious about microplastics. I was not aware that the laundry and dishwasher pods are just plastic which then goes into the water system.
What can be done to prevent microplastics?
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I have actually a bit of insight in this topic. Right now, in Germany there is research done in how much microplastics will affect you or animals.
I've been to the laboratories where they test for this stuff and conduct the research and talked to them quite a bit.
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Plastic is used because its chemically stable. Which means, its not releasing chemicals or reacting a lot to chemicals. In fact: If you eat it, it will just flush out of your body in a few weeks of time. You don't have any chemical in your body that could potentially react with plastic and release dangerous chemicals.
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Even if it ends up in a cell of your body, it will just stay there and do nothing, since its chemically stable. After a few weeks the cell will die (which is fully normal, every cell in your body dies quite often and gets regenerated) and regenerate.
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The only, until now found theoretical maybe dangerous point is: If it enters your liver, it will stay in your liver (Your liver is designed to do this). If you eat too much microplastics your liver could potentially theoretically grow in size and affect other organs. But you'ld have to eat it spoonwise.
So, in short: No. I'm not afraid of it, or do I think about it a lot. Research suggests its actually doing nothing. Don't read the newspapers that earn money by scaring people, and start reading actual research papers. Fun fact: Most articles cite the research papers wrong, or are way to overexaggurating. Just read the linked papers, its way less grim than they want you to think. Even though, its quite a weird thought to me knowing that we f*cked our planet so much that they actually found this stuff in unborn babies. I mean. Come on.
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