We're Eating Plastics From Our Own Dirty Laundry (vice.com) 172
Every time you wash your fleece jacket or other synthetic clothing, microscopic synthetic fibres are released and end up in our food supply and drinking water. From a report: These microfibres are so small -- visible only under a microscope -- that they bypass municipal filtration systems and are consumed by fish and other marine life. A team of women from Waterloo, Ontario is looking to solve that problem. They've designed something that looks a lot like a dryer sheet for your laundry machine. You'd be able to drop this reusable sheet, called PolyGone, into the laundry machine with your dirty clothes. It attracts and traps the microfibres so they can be recycled. They presented their work at the annual AquaHacking conference at the University of Waterloo on Wednesday. "With these fibres entering our food system and ending up on our plates, we are essentially eating polluted laundry," said co-founder Lauren Smith at the conference. The event saw five teams, including hers, compete for tens of thousands of dollars and entry into several local incubators and accelerator centres. Smith has a Masters degree in sustainability management from UW, specializing in water.
So... is there a problem? (Score:3, Insightful)
Re: (Score:1)
Obvious corporate shill is obvious. This is the greatest health menace since dihydrogen monoxide!
Re: (Score:2)
Exactly... What is the health issue here?
I'm not saying there isn't one, I'm just interested in why this is a problem. I've seen at least two news stories about this now and neither of them have any information about what the alarm is really about.
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
My suspicion is they're benign and that this is a well-known phenomena, or rare, but it upsets people concerned about the idea of "un-natural" or "synthetic" things making their way in their food source.
Otherwise: Wouldn't this discovery have been its own article and study LONG before someone was working on developing a product?
Maybe the findings about microfibers are specifically being printed to create demand for a product.
Also; it's not a very practical product..... sure you may FILTER your own laund
Re: (Score:3)
Assuming this is important and the product works, then they can have a post-filtering stage at the sewage treatment plant where the clean water discharge first goes through a giant, turbulant vat stirring up many sheets of this stuff. That would be an extremely-fine-particle filter.
When a centralized design doesn't work, distribute. When a distributed design doesn't work, centralize. When both are practical and functional, take a layered approach.
Re: (Score:2)
Assuming this is important and the product works, then they can have a post-filtering stage at the sewage treatment plant where the clean water discharge first goes through a giant, turbulant vat stirring up many sheets of this stuff.
These aren't washer sheets, they're dryer sheets. Imagine the local water processing plant with a huge dryer where they have hundreds of these sheets in a big hot rotating tub and they spray water into it and it "dries". Hey, you don't need the sheets at all if you are going to distill all your outgoing waste water!
When a centralized design doesn't work, distribute.
Uhhh, the problem with this solution is that polyester clothing is almost dry when it comes out of the spin cycle of the washer, and it is a waste of time to run it through a dryer in the first p
Re: (Score:2)
These aren't washer sheets, they're dryer sheets.
The issue is polyester fibers getting into the water because they pass through the filters at sewage treatment plants. They don't get into the sewage system from your dryer; they get into it from your washing machine. How in the hell would the point-of-use for these things, thus, be the dryer?
It says they're dryer-sheet-like, not that they go in the dryer.
The rest of your ramble is also pointless and disconnected.
Re: (Score:2)
So, overall, it is stil
Re: (Score:2)
The problem is the stuff coming out of the sewage treatment plant apparently still has these tiny fibers coming out of it. There's been a lot of proposal about throwing these sheets in and removing them at the source (decentralized); it makes more sense to force the clean-water discharge through an additional filtration stage.
We have filters for laundry water discharge (lint traps), but they've proposed this thing instead. I assume this means something about turbulence increases the likelihood of captu
Re: (Score:3)
My suspicion is they're benign and that this is a well-known phenomena, or rare, but it upsets people concerned about the idea of "un-natural" or "synthetic" things making their way in their food source.
Actually it seems this has been an area of study for a few years now:
http://system.suny.edu/system-... [suny.edu]
Microplastics affect different aspects of the environment. They can affect fish, birds and other wildlife who may ingest the plastics, causing internal blockage, dehydration and death in these species.
Microplastics can also transport other pollutants. They absorb pollutants already in the water, such as DDT, polyaromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) and polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs). When ingested by wildlife or humans (either directly or indirectly), these plastics contain high concentrations of these dangerous toxins which can become even more concentrated and dangerous as they bioaccumulate in the food chain.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/p... [nih.gov]
Public health impact of plastics: An overview
2011 Sep-Dec
I guess microplastic fibers are different than microplastic beads, and maybe definitive, specific studies haven't been published yet. But, logic would say they probably have the same ill effects. I do agree I'd wait for the studies before passing laws. But nothing wrong with have a product ready to solve the problem.
Nice but... (Score:2)
That sheet is great and all but how do we get it to be used on a large scale? We have a hard enough time getting people to believe that significantly altering our planet's atmosphere is a bad thing, how are we going to get people on board with this?
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:1)
Are you saying the idea is full of sheet?
Re: (Score:2)
...how are we going to get people on board with this?
We aren't.
Re: (Score:2)
We aren't.
Because it is a waste of electricity to machine dry polyester or fleece, so the most environmentally conscientious people will not be using a dryer anyway. The only people who would use such a thing are those weak minded people who are scared because someone told them they are "eating their dirty laundry".
Re: (Score:2)
Or maybe some one out there thinks eating plastic isn't desirable but still enjoys the conveniences of modern technology?
How absurd!
Re: (Score:2)
Fiber! (Score:1)
Re: (Score:2)
You must be young.... Those bran muffins look pretty tempting at my age...
Yes it is a problem, it's sad people are asking (Score:1)
Plastic is not inert, It really should not be used for food packaging. It leeches chemicals into your food - the worst of which is plasticizers which make plastic soft (vs. the old brittle plastics of the 60's) plasticizers mimic hormones (which regulate most of your autonomous functions) this can screw up many of the normal functions in your body, in addition to causing cancer.
http://www.salon.com/2005/05/27/plastics_and_boys/
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Because Real Science(tm) only comes from genuine industry lobbying groups [wikipedia.org] who have a vested interest in opposing regulations that might impact corporate profits!
Thanks to our efforts in this area, you can rest assured that you will never need to talk to those creepy science nerds again because our friendly PR staff is ready to answer all your questions in the most profitable way possible!
Kick 'em when they're up... (Score:3)
To think that Don Henley was right all this time...
"You don't really need to find out what's going on.
You don't really want to know just how far it's gone.
Just leave well enough alone. Eat your dirty laundry"
isn't this basically like eating fiber? (Score:2)
Don't the two both just pass through your digestive tract and on out? I don't see the big deal - if it just passed through and isn't getting absorbed or cause problems, why worry about it? Or is there some confirmed research that shows it's a problem somehow?
Synthetic Sheep? (Score:3, Informative)
> your fleece jacket or other synthetic clothing,
Fleece's come from sheep.
Re: (Score:2)
> your fleece jacket or other synthetic clothing,
Fleece's come from sheep.
Only the natural fleece comes from sheep. ...usually at night.
There is also artificial fleece.
Any material that behaves like the natural fleece (or more specifically its source) won't be a problem; your body processes things like that and they will pass
Re:Synthetic Sheep? (Score:4, Informative)
Fleece's come from sheep.
Traditionally, yes. Here's a more modern type [wikipedia.org], likely the one TFA is referring to:
"Polar fleece is used in jackets, hats, sweaters, sweatpants, cloth nappies, gym clothes, hoodies, blankets, and high-performance outdoor clothing. It can be made partially from recycled plastic bottles and is very light, soft, and easy to wash."
Re: (Score:3)
Re: (Score:2)
Yup. I typed it too quickly then face-palmed myself.
"team of women" (Score:3)
Not researchers, or scientists, or even interested persons... But simply 'women'. Are we to assume then that their primary qualification is their gender? (Yes I would have the same beef if it had been written as 'a team of men')
It doesn't make sense to do it at the home. (Score:2)
Why not sell the technology in bulk to municipal water treatment facilities and let them remove the plastic microfibers before the water is discharged? They already have to deal with the issue of biosolids from wastewater. They would be more apt to recycle the end product as opposed to home users who would be more likely to throw them away than to recycle them.
LK
Why not impliment at an industrial level? (Score:2)
Some plastics can be replaced (Score:1)
As we all know, you can make compostable and biodegradeable furniture from vegetable matter, and even print it in 3D printers. It's not difficult to make vegetable matter biofilm solids to replace much plastic usage, in terms of plastic bags, plastic wrap, shipping foam, etc. Then this problem disappears, other than for those resins used for microfleece.
But even microfleece can be replaced by vegetable based bioplastics.
If it's for fashion, having something that only lasts a few times becomes less of an is
The Dryer Is The Wrong Place to Address This (Score:5, Insightful)
They need a solution for municipal water systems so all the plastic from everybody gets trapped in one place.
I don't buy synthetic fibers (Score:2)
Not only is it dangerous for the environment but also for your body. These microfibers get lodged in your skin and absorbed, increasing risk of cancer. Stopped using them and never have used any on my son. Sucks because sometimes we have to make our own clothes but whatever. Worth it.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
When you're sitting on them all day or wearing tight clothes or sleeping in them, I imagine the dust-sized pieces can easily do so, not to mention the chemicals they are treated with such as flame retardants, Teflon, formaldehyde... And when all these are absorbed through the skin it bypasses the liver
Re: (Score:3)
Re:okay we get it, we eat plastic (Score:5, Interesting)
Sounds like they just pass straight through the digestive system to waste, just like other numerous toxins and junk components of things you eat that don't have nutritive value.
Is there evidence that any of these residual plastic bits that get through the water filters are actually harmful?
Re:okay we get it, we eat plastic (Score:5, Insightful)
This comes across as yet another scare article with the dual purpose of keeping the masses terrified of the world around them and to hopefully sell this new product that is coming out.
Re: (Score:1)
You don't understand the environmentalist religion at all.
Re: (Score:2)
Most beliefs can have nuggets of truth. Doesn't mean it's not a religion.
Gaia anyone?
Re: (Score:1)
Is there evidence that any of these residual plastic bits that get through the water filters are actually harmful?
Obesity in children has tripled over the last 35 years, and we have NO IDEA what is causing this. Fingers have been pointed at HFCS, but there is no known causative correlation, and countries with low fructose consumption have seen the same climb in obesity. People have also blamed "inactivity", but that is just circular logic. Why have people become less active? Things like "larger portion sizes" may explain a 5-10% rise, but not 200%.
So does plastics, pseudo-estrogens, and other gunk in our diet have
Re: (Score:1)
Re:okay we get it, we eat plastic (Score:5, Interesting)
Eating much more food than a body needs causes obesity.
Of course eating too much causes obesity, but dismissing a serious problem with an vacuous inanity isn't constructive.
What causes people to eat too much? More importantly, what has caused the problem to TRIPLE? Why did the problem become much much worse over the last 35 years?
Every proposed cause is either something that already existed 35 years ago (soda, sedentary lifestyle), or isn't actually correlated with obesity (fructose).
Re: (Score:2)
Why did the problem become much much worse over the last 35 years?
Computers, video games, cable TV, internet, etc.
Re:okay we get it, we eat plastic (Score:4, Insightful)
Computers, video games, cable TV, internet, etc.
Yet obesity has gone up most among poor people who are least likely to be able to afford these things. Obesity has gone up the most among African-American females, the demographic least likely to own a computer or play video games. Obesity has gone up as much in Mexico as it has in America, yet all of these things you listed are less common there.
Re: okay we get it, we eat plastic (Score:2)
Its cheap calories in the form of junk food. Good food has gotten so expensive more and more people are sustaining themselves on huge amounts of junk calories as discount prices. We are advertised to relentlessly by brands whose ingredients while stable and nontoxic contain almost no useful nutrition or substantially less than the un processed real mccoy.
Do we see vegans who no doubt drink this water suffering from obesity?
Im not a vegan but i eat ok and enjoy a little junk food and excercise but the answ
Re: okay we get it, we eat plastic (Score:4, Informative)
Its cheap calories in the form of junk food.
Junk food is not a new phenomena. There was plenty of it 35 years ago.
Good food has gotten so expensive
Food has gone down in price over the last 35 years, and basic staples are less expensive than junk food. Oatmeal is way cheaper than potato chips. Carrots are cheaper than pretzels. Tap water is more affordable than soda.
There are a lot of dumb explanations for the obesity epidemic, but the argument that people "had to get fat" out of economic necessity is the most ridiculous.
Re: (Score:2)
Its cheap calories in the form of junk food. Good food has gotten so expensive
Spoken like someone who doesn't cook good food. I only eat junkfood when I really need to, it's far more expensive than making something with nice fresh ingredients from the store.
Re: (Score:2)
Sedentary lifestyle is still the answer. Not just gaming but Cable and now streaming TV and an abundant supply of snack foods reduces the need or desire to leave the couch.
Re: (Score:2)
It's truly amazing what a couple of good pans, some fresh ingredients, and a little know-how and technique can get you for very little money. My wife and I go out to eat when we're feeling lazy, and to satisfy a craving or two of hers that we can't easily make at home. We don't go out for cheaper food, and rarely go out for better food. Learning to cook makes going out to eat hard, because it stings a bit to pay a lot of money for something you could have done better. It doesn't matter how good a chef is, w
Re: (Score:2)
I sort of disagree with the last part of your statement. A chef rarely does 20 dishes by himself in a good restaurant and the synergies of common orders makes things quite easy. I find it no more difficult cooking steaks for 20 than I do cooking steaks for myself, even with different requests for how well done they are.
But back on point of cost, I see often someone complain that they tried cooking at home once and it cost them a fortune. Key is once, and what they are missing is the left over raw ingredient
Re: (Score:2)
has gone up most among poor people who are least likely to be able to afford these things.
You claim "least likely to be able to afford those things", but in fact, in many cases poor people may have plenty of access to these things and might be prioritizing purchasing these things over massively more expensive toys such as a car for basic transportation ---- Can't afford a $5000 car and $2000 a year in insurance, but a $200 game console for the kids is nothing; ability to afford does not always equa
Re: (Score:2)
Why did the problem become much much worse over the last 35 years?
Dietary changes. The emergence of Fast Food lifestyle.... McDonalds' arrived at New York in 1972;
not a lot longer than 35 years ago. Then over the following decades we got Internet, Console games, then Mobile games.
Re: (Score:2)
Dietary changes.
Sure, and hot weather is caused by an increase in temperatures.
OF COURSE diets changed. But why did they change? A small bump of 5% or 10% might be explained away as "advertising for junk food" or "more video games". But we saw a 200% increase, a TRIPLING of obesity. That is a profound and extreme change in food consumption and metabolism. Why? If it was really something simplistic like "video games", then there would be huge amounts of data to confirm that. So far no one has even been able to show
Re: (Score:2)
OF COURSE diets changed. But why did they change? A small bump of 5% or 10% might be explained away as "advertising for junk food" or "more video games". But we saw a 200% increase, a TRIPLING of obesity. That is a profound and extreme change in food consumption and metabolism. Why?
There are probably many correlations. The release of the food pyramid with carbs to be the most consumed item. Colour TV becomes widespread & advertising of junk food increases. Could be a rapid increases in wages vs cost of food. Maybe some new really cheap way of harvesting vegetable oil.
Or maybe it's the change to add HFCS in so much of our food? From the HFCS wiki article:
In 1965–1970 Yoshiyuki Takasaki, at the Japanese National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST) developed a heat-stable xylose isomerase enzyme from yeast. In 1967, the Clinton Corn Processing Company obtained an exclusive license to a manufacture glucose isomerase derived from Streptomyces bacteria and began shipping an early version of HFCS in February 1967.[3]:140 In 1983, the FDA approved HFCS as Generally Recognized as Safe (GRAS), and that decision was reaffirmed in 1996[30] Prior to the development of the worldwide sugar industry, dietary fructose was limited to only a few items. Milk, meats, and most vegetables, the staples of many early diets, have no fructose, and only 5–10% fructose by weight is found in fruits such as grapes, apples, and blueberries. Most traditional dried fruits, however, contain about 50% fructose. From 1970 to 2000, there was a 25% increase in "added sugars" in the U.S
Re: (Score:2)
OF COURSE diets changed. But why did they change?
Culture. New developments. Social trends and fads. EXISTENCE OF ENABLING CONDITIONS such as creation or proliferation of products is enough for humans to change. It's kind of silly that you are incredulous about there being major changes, or that there has to be some grand conspiracy like "something hidden in the water", because humans are LIVING beings, and their
behavior can be affected massively by things as simple as Advertising, or what other pe
Here's a better question (Score:3)
Lots and lots of the stuff we blame on poor moral character is turning out to be physiological. I'm wondering if this will change our society's outlook on life?
Re: (Score:2)
Nowdays it's hard to get the kids off the TV, even if you kick em out they don't go roaming and playing like they used to because all the other kids are at home playing games or
Re: (Score:2)
How many kids do you know barely get off the couch?
Re: (Score:2)
Maybe because we're less active than we used to be?
So what has caused hundreds of millions of people to become much less active? Cars ownership did not significantly change. There were no profound shifts to less labor intensive jobs. How do you explain such a massive shift in metabolism and behavior, other than just pointing out that it happened?
Re: (Score:2)
Urbanization?
Urbanization hasn't changed near enough in the last 35 years to account for a TRIPLING of obesity rates, even if it was correlated with obesity (it isn't).
Rural people are most likely to be obese.
Urban people are least likely to be obese.
Suburban people are in the middle.
Re: (Score:2)
I walk 30 blocks to go to a store and people think I'm crazy. Why didn't I take the train (live in NYC). In the suburbs people drive when their only going a half mile. WTF?
Re: (Score:2)
I'd say it's 2 things:
1. Abundant tasty foods.
2. Parents should be helping their kids. In the past, bad parents had hungry kids. Now almost no one ever goes hungry and when bad parents neglect their kids' health and they're too fat instead of too thin.
Does anyone actually take the time to help a kid be less fat? I was a fat kid. Exactly zero people ever genuinely tried to help me with that.
Re: (Score:2)
1. Abundant tasty foods.
Food was just as abundant and tasty 35 years ago.
In the past, bad parents had hungry kids. Now almost no one ever goes hungry
Hunger in America was not more common 35 years ago.
Does anyone actually take the time to help a kid be less fat?
Do you really think that childhood obesity tripled because of a vast decline in helpful people?
Re: (Score:2)
Food was just as abundant and tasty 35 years ago.
False. You seriously want to say that food is the one area where there's been zero progress in the last 35 years?
Hunger in America was not more common 35 years ago.
I don't know what you think "more common" means. Food costs less and high calorie, ready to eat foods are clearly more available to more people at lower cost (measured in time spent working to earn the money to buy them) than 35 years ago.
Do you really think that childhood obesity tripled because of a vast decline in helpful people?
It's a factor. There are other factors. And it's not a decline in "helpful people", it's a specific unwillingness/failure to help a kid slim down. There's
Re: (Score:2)
Some people are hung up on glyphosates. I myself am of the opinion that it is the swapping in our collective diet of the proportions of calories from fat and carbohydrates. We used to eat a much more high fat diet before the government got involved in the 70's and hypnotized us all into eating a high carb diet. Unfortunately, this is also muddled with the high and pervasive use of glyphosates in both grains eaten by humans and those used in feedstock. So either way those who can't afford to protect them
Re: (Score:2)
I don't think you mean glyphosates: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wik... [wikipedia.org]
Re: okay we get it, we eat plastic (Score:2)
I definitely did mean glyphosates. Look it up, people are concerned and their concerns seem valid.
Re: (Score:2)
Ah, sorry, I misread your post.
I saw a program on TV once where a Danish farmer who had fed half of his pigs from a field that he used to treat with Glyphosate and the other half from a field that he didn't use Glyphosate on. The ones with the Glyphosate were not as healthy and had far more piglets that were born dead than the other half.
I was quite astonished a few days ago to hear that the EU had decided that Glyphosate was safe. But now I read that part of the document in which they came to that conclusi
Re: okay we get it, we eat plastic (Score:2)
Cool. Sometimes I ramble, my post may not have been very clear. I'm definitely disappointed that the EU ruled that glyphosates were safe. I'm guessing lots of bribes were distributed to get the EU to come to that conclusion. I also was hoping they would hold the line on food safety so there would be an escape hatch for us 'muricans. I'm frankly quite surprised that France went along with this travesty, my view was that they tend to care about food quality.
Re: (Score:1)
Obesity in children has tripled over the last 35 years, and we have NO IDEA what is causing this.
Inactivity. That simple.
Inactivity and massive amounts of carbohydrates. That simple.
The reasons why kids are being inactive today versus 30 years ago are the interactive video systems, and much more importantly, society's fear of kidnappers. Kids 30 years ago used to wander the neighborhoods or woods with friends...but once national news started the sensationalism cycle, parents freaked out and made sure their kids were inside doing safe things like video games
30 years ago, kids were in greater danger being in the house than outside it.
Re: (Score:2)
Inactivity and massive amounts of carbohydrates.
Consumption of carbohydrates as a proportion of total calories has not increased over the last 35 years.
That simple.
Simple, yet wrong.
The reasons why kids are being inactive today versus 30 years ago are the interactive video systems
If video games really were the root cause of hundreds of millions of cases of obesity, there would be plenty of evidence. Can you cite any? Boys play more video games than girls, yet girls have higher obesity rates.
Re: (Score:3)
Re: (Score:1)
Re: (Score:2)
Yes, I remember the times when iron was still a heavy metal. "Don't eat iron," they told us. But I did once, and that is why I still know this.
Re: okay we get it, we eat plastic (Score:1)
Re: (Score:1)
Re: (Score:2)
Because the fittest, best looking women will be at higher risk of cancer? You really don't think very much, do you?
Re: okay we get it, we eat plastic (Score:2)
Women on your computer screen aren't real. Get over your porn fantasies. A real woman ain't going to go down on you the first time you meet because, you know, you delivered pizza to her house and her husband was on a two day business trip.
Easy Search (Score:1)
Is there evidence that any of these residual plastic bits that get through the water filters are actually harmful?
Given that you were already connected to the Internet, not looking this up is just plain lazy.
Here is your evidence [nih.gov]. I chose it out of 254,000 Google results for "Plastic mimics estrogen" because it is hosted by the U.S. National Institutes of Health as opposed to a partisan site.
Re: (Score:2)
Your digestive system does, though.
Serious question.. How? What about small plastic fibers is a problem as they go though my digestive tract?
Re: (Score:3)
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/p... [nih.gov]
Re: (Score:1)
That article is about a softening agent which is banned in consumer products in the USA, so not a concern in my backyard.. Anything else?
Re: (Score:2)
Serious question.. How? What about small plastic fibers is a problem as they go though my digestive tract?
http://system.suny.edu/system-... [suny.edu]
Microplastics affect different aspects of the environment. They can affect fish, birds and other wildlife who may ingest the plastics, causing internal blockage, dehydration and death in these species.
Microplastics can also transport other pollutants. They absorb pollutants already in the water, such as DDT, polyaromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) and polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs). When ingested by wildlife or humans (either directly or indirectly), these plastics contain high concentrations of these dangerous toxins which can become even more concentrated and dangerous as they bioaccumulate in the food chain.
http://digitalcommons.salve.ed... [salve.edu]
Some consequences of micro plastic ingestion that have been found in fish include reduced reproductive ability,
decreased feeding ability, abnormal behavior and death.25
Re: (Score:2)
When I was little I probably accidentally swollowed, and pooped out tens of pennies, dimes, screws, nuts. Unless it's going to leech a chemical that mimics hormones, or heavy metals typically it just goes right through you, along with all the other undigestible parts of your food, like bone fragments, egg shell fragments, bugs, dirt, rocks... you do realize the human digestive system was designed to eat raw meat in an open field, right?
Yeah our digestive systems these days are a bit more sensitive
Re:okay we get it, we eat plastic (Score:4, Insightful)
Unless it's going to leech a chemical that mimics hormones,
I think that's the major concern here. Plasticizers mimicking estrogen, etc. Either we eat them directly and suffer the consequences. Or fish eat them and they interfere with their growth/reproduction cycles and we get fewer fish. Or gay fish.
The answer isn't so much to get plastics out of the environment as it is to get these specific components out of the plastics. You will probably absorb far more weird chemicals from your food packaging then from particles that you consume from the environment.
Re: (Score:2)
...typically it just goes right through you, along with all the other undigestible parts of your food, like bone fragments, egg shell fragments, bugs, dirt, rocks...
What's wrong with eating bugs [huffingtonpost.com]?
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Re:okay we get it, we eat plastic (Score:5, Interesting)
Small particles can lodge in your intestinal vaginations and such, whereas large things will pass through. A lot of weird stuff happens when things change size and shape. For example: L-Methamphetamine causes vasoconstriction and acts as a nasal decongestant; D-Methamphatemaine tilts a Methyl group toward the other side of the molecule, and so ends up binding to NET and DAT, entering the DAT and forcing dopamine out of the vacuole and into your brain, revving up your serotonin system, and generally screwing your brain all up. The 2,4-methyldioxy version (bind essentially H2CO2 to the phenyl ring) activates kappa-opioid receptors, makes you hallucinate, and excites your serotonin system to toxicity.
These aren't chemical reactions; these chemicals fit into the receptors by their shape, and stop affecting you when an enzyme alters their chemical structure to make them no longer fit. They don't change chemical structure to apply their effects, but rather they physically interact with neurons.
Come up from molecular-scale stuff and you get titanium oxide. Inhale a pea-size chunk and cough it out, no big deal (assuming you can cough the little rock out of your lung). Grind it up into a powder, you can rub it across your skin--no big deal. Grind it down to a nanometer-wide particle and it enters the cells, where it absorbs ultra-violet radiation and re-radiates the energy inside the cell, causing DNA damage.
Consider swallowing a penny versus a stranded copper wire ... or a pin.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
It's not our fault you're retarded.
Re: (Score:1)
I used to care, but not after my brain was damaged from plastic.
Re: (Score:2)
You are fed up, I take it.
Re: (Score:1)
That's why you should cook fish before eating it. But cooking plastic (in fish) just makes the problem worse.
And why didn't anybody discover this problem before? Synthetic fabrics have been widespread since at least the 1960's.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:1)
Insightful comment. The main problem is economy of scale and ROI. Selling dryer sheets allows one to use existing dryer and filter technology (like for swimming pools and air intake filtration). Selling sewage only ones avoids drains that go direct to water sources, and limits usage only to medium to large cities.
Starting with dryer sheets and air/water intake or outlet filters is a good first step to provide a scalable non-urban environment, and can then be adapted for commercial urban sewage treatment as