Sunday, April 15, 2018

Microplastics in Everything

Besides the usual 'Warming is Freezing Us' stories in the Guardian, this week's scare story is all about microplastics killing us.

Here I put in some comments with the replies.



hasmis 2h ago

I've never had a problem with teabags in the compost. For coffee, I use a standard paper
filter which also is good in the compost. The thing about micro plastic reminds me of the big
scare about nano-particles a few years ago, and pcb's before that. Always a new scare, that's
how newspapers make money. :)

*****
M G  hasmis 2h ago

I've never had a problem with teabags in the compost

In what universe is it a good idea to put microplastic in compost?

As it happens some bullshit about the EU banning recycling of teabags was one of Boris Johnson's
long list of lies about the EU.
****
Production of pcbs was notionally banned way back in the 70s, which is why it's now
*less* prominent, it hasn't disappeared. Given the lifespan of equipment containing them
, a large quantity should have disappeared or will be handled by more recent regs on recycling
electrical equipment, at least in the EU. In much the same way CFC issues haven't gone
away, they've just been less significant - we've just scrapped an 18 yr old freezer
that couldnt be regassed and had to be disposed of responsibly.

*****
hasmis  hasmis 5m ago


To sum up, I'm sorry about making fun of this week's scare stories. The microplastic in
my garden soil is bound by the huge amount of vermiculite, and you don't want to see a
parts per million analysis of *that* stuff. Next week's scare story. The stuff I drink is washed
out by cancerous coffee, and the sea salt interacted with red wine, a tad over my daily limit, so
I'm losing 2 minutes of life. My friend, of 86, only has a few years left due to advanced prostate
cancer, and you know what that's from (lack thereof). When summer finally comes to Canada,
I'll be inhaling wood smoke and eating my fresh-caught Lake Trout. All in all, I probably
won't live long enough to see the effects of micro-plastic.


No comments: