Microplastics are everywhere. You can do one simple thing to avoid them. (WaPo)

#1

If you are concerned about microplastics, the world starts to look like a minefield. The tiny particles can slough off of polyester clothing and swirl around in the air inside your home; they can scrape off of food packaging into your take-out food.

But as scientists zero in on the sources of microplastics — and how they get into human bodies — one factor stands out.

Microplastics, studies increasingly show, are released from exposure to heat.

“Heat probably plays the most crucial role in generating these micro- and nanoplastics,” said Kazi Albab Hussain, a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Nebraska at Lincoln.

Pour coffee into a plastic foam cup and pieces of the cup will leach out into the coffee itself. Brew tea and millions of microplastics and even tinier nanoplastics will spill from the tea bag into your cup. Wash your polyester clothing on high heat and the textiles can start to break apart, sending microplastics spinning through the water supply.

In one recent study by researchers at the University of Birmingham in England, scientists analyzed 31 beverages for sale on the British market — from fruit juices and sodas to coffee and tea. They looked at particles bigger than 10 micrometers in diameter, or roughly one-fifth the width of a human hair. While all the drinks had at least a dozen microplastic particles in them on average, by far the highest numbers were in hot drinks. Hot tea, for example, had an average of 60 particles per liter, while iced tea had 31 particles. Hot coffee had 43 particles per liter, while iced coffee had closer to 37.

Read the full story: Microplastics are everywhere. You can do one simple thing to avoid them. (WaPo)

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#2

Hot tea, for example, had an average of 60 particles per liter, while iced tea had 31 particles. Hot coffee had 43 particles per liter, while iced coffee had closer to 37.

This is a massive underestimate. It’s more likely to be in the hundreds of thousands of particles.

regardless, it’s really important to know when to refuse tea/coffee (as they’re super-abundant), to bring portable chemex’es/moka pot if needed, and to always inquire after what tubing the coffee was prepared in. And sometimes if there’s catered coffee, you drink BEFORE so you don’t need it, or even buy your own coffee…

idk, even i though i was a bit crazy for obsessing over them to the extent i did 2-3 years ago, now this is all getting mainstream’d.

#3

Is there a link to this study? I am wondering if they are referring to total particles, or specifically plastic particles.

#4

Here is the study:

Full open access paper here:

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0048969725018285?via%3Dihub

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#5

Thanks. So it looks like a very good method, and they’re detecting microplastics in the 1-5µm size range. They even identified the polymers - mostly polyethylene, polypropylene and PET.

Depends how you define particle. If you’re talking about the conventional definition of microplastics (i.e. over 1µm) then I think this paper is pretty accurate. If you’re talking about nano-scale objects, that’s a different question.

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