Asklemmy

It's too late to avoid them. Microplastics are being found literally everywhere on the planet.

I'm going to take a different approach than most of the other comments here: you can't. Microplastics are in the air and a large chunk of it comes from car tire residue. You're breathing it, likely right now. Research is still in the early phases and we just don't know how bad it is yet, both from the proliferation and the impact side of things.

Source is Breaking the Plastic Wave and Overview on the occurrence of microplastics in air.

Short term: grow your own food.
long term: politics

you don't. you can try to mitigate it by using less plastic yourself, buying local foods, whatever, but it won't make much of an impact.

the less bad news is that plastic, by its own properties, is chemically relatively inert, so they're really not that harmful. they're still bad, mind you, just not all that hyped up to be.

Die

That's the neat part, you can't

They’re in he air, the water, the food, your brain, apparently. Your reproductive fluids…there’s literally no escape. We signed this pact with satan when capitalism determined that profit is the only thing that matters.

The first step we could take? Bringing the exploitative and murderous system of capitalism to its knees. So we can promptly shoot it in the back of the head. Then, maaaybe our children’s children’s children would have an option to avoid microplastics.

https://www.aamc.org/news/microplastics-are-inside-us-all-what-does-mean-our-health

My take-aways from this article:
There's no good study on microplastics in humans.
They've tested "pristine" plastic on mice and it's pretty bad.
The plastics we're exposed to are loaded with chemicals and toxins.

She carries a stainless-steel water bottle and avoids plastic water bottles. She doesn’t microwave food in plastic containers and only uses glass, wood, or metal kitchen items, including mixing bowls, spoons, cutting boards, and food storage containers.

takes her shoes off to avoid tracking in dust from the outside and uses a HEPA filter to capture particles from the air.

Great point. Tires are one of the leading products polluting our environment and lungs.

This article also links to The Program on Reproductive Health and the Environment at UCSF which offers a guide for minimizing exposure to bad stuff. https://prhe.ucsf.edu/toxic-matters

Here's a relevant NYT Article - How to Minimize Your Exposure to Microplastics

You can't outright, but you can at least try to minimize your exposure. Easiest way is to avoid buying products that use plastic packaging, especially if the product that you're planning to buy is food. Don't microwave plastics, even the supposedly "food safe" one - that releases a ton of microplastics into your food. Don't order takeout - again, lots of plastic in the containers. Even paper food containers contain a plastic coating.

Don't touch receipts, especially with wet hands. Or at minimum, wash your hands thoroughly after touching it

Clothing and textiles from natural fibres. No rubber tires as they are major shedders of micro plastics.

Short answer: very simple

Avoid plastic

You buy bottled water?

That has Microplastics.

You buy or store food in plastic?

Microplastics..

Use plastic straws?

Welp, Microplastics

Etc...

Basically it's difficult to avoid it since we use plastic almost everywhere daily, but not impossible.

You can't completely avoid them, but avoiding plastic food/drink containers is an easy thing to do. Good for the environment too, not just your health.

I read an article not that long ago that stated that they're in men's testicles and women's ovaries. In other words, they have become a part of your physical body and will become a part of the bodies of the next generation (likely several generations). They're unavoidable.

The main ways you're exposed to microplastics is through ingestion and breathing it in.

To limit ingestion, yes the main thing to do is to avoid food and drink that comes in plastic containers. Reducing your consumption of processed foods will help with this. Eating mostly produce is a simpler way to approach this. Even though produce may often be transported in plastic, if you wash it before consumption you'll have done pretty well. Ideally you would also have a reverse osmosis filter at home, as your water probably has microplastics as well (but less than bottled water!).

To limit breathing it in, yes avoid frequent exposure to busy roads. They are often full of tire dust that is getting kicked up. This is cumulative, though. Walking by a busy street once is no big deal. Walking along one twice a day may add up.

Overall, however, to address microplastics we will have to control the production of plastics and the use of plastics in the first place. For example, there would be a lot less tire dust if we used more rail to get around. And there would be less need for bottled water if water fountains were ubiquitous and so were standardized stainless steel water bottles. In addition, we could use biodegradable plastics for more packaging so that they don't accumulate in bodies or the environment.

But this last point, despite being the only real solution, will literally require the overthrow of capitalism. I'm for this and am happy to talk about it more, but it is a lot.

Move to a different planet? I think this cat is out of the bag, they are everywhere now, it's the lead of the current generation.

The steps you listed seem like reasonable action anyway, but there simply isn't anything you can do to avoid them here.

Dude they literally pervade the vast majority of the planet’s ecosystem at this point. That ship sailed a long, long time ago.

That's the fun part. You don't.

Hunt your own food and wear the skins, but even animals have traces of microplastics now so might as well grow naked. traces of microplastics in soil, so that will transfer to any home grown food, so eating is out. you could try distilling your own water but that's the only sustenance you will have. After a few weeks of not eating you should be dead and that is the only true way to be free of microplastics.

"Plastic came out of the Earth; the Earth probably sees plastic as just another one of its children. Could be the only reason the Earth allowed us to be spawned from it in the first place: it wanted plastic for itself, didn’t know how to make it, needed us. Could be the answer to our age-old philosophical question: “Why are we here?” Plastic, assholes!"

George Carlin.

Some people here say space, but anything that takes you to space contains microplastics, in fact you yourself contain microplastic. The only way to avoid microplastics is simply to not exist at all. And I don't mean dying, when you die you still have microplastics in your body.

The two most common sources of microplastics that enter your body are from the vessels you eat/drink from, and from particles in the air from things like clothes, carpets, furniture, linens.

How to avoid? Use stainless steel, aluminum, copper, (or other metals), ceramic, or glass storage vessels for things like water (including your Brita) for warming things in the microwave, or for storing food, and reduce buying things in plastic if you plan on keeping them there for awhile (eg glass ketchup bottle). Replace any plastic water pipes in your wall with good ol copper. My main water vessels are all stainless steel.

For particulate, consider air filtration, buy clothes/furniture/carpets made from natural animal/ sources like cotton, wool, bamboo, avoiding plastics like polyester. That includes your scrubbing utensil for dishes. Your carpets are probably made with some sort of plastic, so if it's too much to do hardwood, or replace with a natural fibre, the Dyson vacuums are good at getting out loose microplastics.

Be warned, one time I almost bought a stainless steel cup from a reputable retailer, and upon further investigation it was just plastic with a steel coating.. Yep, made in Communist China..

Avoid anything that comes in plastic packaging and distill your own water. You will still need to drink normal water but I can't imagine any municipality is currently equipped to deal with microplastic so reducing your intake is probably a good idea.

Short of moving somewhere very rural and growing all your own food, it is close to impossible.

Use only textiles made of cotton, wool or linen (I recommend linen in summer and wool in winter, since cotton isn't very good at conserving your body heat), look for a bamboo toothbrush, avoid foods in plastic packaging (this can sadly be difficult) and only put them in ceramic, metal or glass containers.

I assume your goal is to minimise the amount of microplastics inside your body, so the materials that touch your food are a priority. The amount of microplastics in your food or drink also depends on how long they are in contact with plastic. For example, if you have juice in a plastic bottle, drinking it right away or putting it in a plasticless container would probably result in less microplastics than storing it in the said bottle.

If you are more concerned about nature, try shopping at second-hand stores.