Your brain on microplastics?

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Read some articles today about this study (admittedly not peer reviewed yet), saying that the average American brain in their study was 0.5% microplastics. I’m not aware of any particular study definitively linking microplastics to health conditions in humans, but that can’t be good.

I haven’t thrown away my Nalgene or camelback but I’m avoiding disposable bottles. Kind of ironic for my hippy dippy granola-lite friends that won’t touch tap water because of the “toxins” but slurp down polymer soup bottled by your choice of multinational corporation. (Also, water safety standards for bottled water are lower than tap water.)
 
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First, you can get this "plastic" from darn near any type of food or water......including from any and all providers/preparers of food. So, to isolate it from bottled water is just plain stupid and furthermore canyonhunter47, where are you getting bottled water has a lower water safety standard than tap water? I can tell you that you are wrong with 100% certainty. I worked for the largest food company on the planet for 14 years as an engineer so I have first hand knowledge of the food, water and beverage process. I'm betting you do not. In addition, you are far far more likely of dying from the cholesterol related/lack of exercise plaque in your arteries than any amount of plastic from a food or beverage from any company operating in a first world country regulated by any agency in the order of an FDA. For as much bottled water being consumed daily by billions and billions of people for the past 30 years or so you should have people dying all over the place...but, that isn't the case now, is it? I know the water bottling process...99.999% of the population has no idea. Yes, I drink it and Im not worried about it. Nobody else needs to be either. Nuff said.
 
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There is no flouride or any other chemicals in bottled spring water and none in bottled water from the tap since everything is removed in the RO process, and only certain minerals added for taste during the bottling process. Then there are flavoted waters, but again only flavoring added for taste. Only city tap water has flouride, regulated and limited by the federal gov't. to ensure children have it for their teeth development.
 

Wyo_hntr

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There is no flouride or any other chemicals in bottled spring water and none in bottled water from the tap since everything is removed in the RO process, and only certain minerals added for taste during the bottling process. Then there are flavoted waters, but again only flavoring added for taste. Only city tap water has flouride, regulated and limited by the federal gov't. to ensure children have it for their teeth development.
And lower their IQ, and many other negatives. But drink up! The government said it's good. Lol
 
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The benefits of flouride for children far outweigh any risk to a few points of IQ......of course in the proper %. Would you rather have a handful of kids with a few points lower IQ, meaning nothing in reality, or all kids walking around with rotted or no teeth? Yeah, keep reading bullshit!
 
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There is no flouride or any other chemicals in bottled spring water and none in bottled water from the tap since everything is removed in the RO process, and only certain minerals added for taste during the bottling process. Then there are flavoted waters, but again only flavoring added for taste. Only city tap water has flouride, regulated and limited by the federal gov't. to ensure children have it for their teeth development.
Not all water purveyors introduce fluoride. In the mountain west, it is naturally present in a lot of deep water wells.
 

Wyo_hntr

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The benefits of flouride for children far outweigh any risk to a few points of IQ......of course in the proper %. Would you rather have a handful of kids with a few points lower IQ, meaning nothing in reality, or all kids walking around with rotted or no teeth? Yeah, keep reading bullshit!
Keep lashing out emotionally and believing government propaganda.
 
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Seems there are a few here that could use that few points of IQ. There are a lot of much much worse things that people do and consume daily to worry about bottled water or flouride in your tap water.
 
OP
canyonhunter47
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In addition, you are far far more likely of dying from the cholesterol related/lack of exercise plaque in your arteries than any amount of plastic from a food or beverage from any company operating in a first world country regulated by any agency in the order of an FDA.
100% agreed. The big stuff like cardiovascular health, cholesterol, etc are many many orders of magnitude higher on the impact and likelihood scale.
First, you can get this "plastic" from darn near any type of food or water......including from any and all providers/preparers of food. So, to isolate it from bottled water is just plain stupid and furthermore canyonhunter47, where are you getting bottled water has a lower water safety standard than tap water? I can tell you that you are wrong with 100% certainty. I worked for the largest food company on the planet for 14 years as an engineer so I have first hand knowledge of the food, water and beverage process. I'm betting you do not.
I’m in the water industry and there have been cases of enterprising utilities getting fined for violations for what they put in the pipes while they get away with bottling the same stuff for a long time. Now if the bottlers have higher standards they hold themselves to that’s a separate matter. In general, I’m sure they do
For as much bottled water being consumed daily by billions and billions of people for the past 30 years or so you should have people dying all over the place...but, that isn't the case now, is it?
Well the article claims that our brains are 1/200 plastics now. For example, what effects does this have on the aging of the brain? What if it shaves off a couple years of strong brain function? Not saying it does or doesn’t, but life expectancy has greatly increased since we started using plastics so we could easily just not now yet
 
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fwafwow

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First, you can get this "plastic" from darn near any type of food or water......including from any and all providers/preparers of food.
This doesn’t mean it’s good to ingest. If the plastic is a problem, it’s widespread sourcing would just speak to the breadth of the issue.
I worked for the largest food company on the planet for 14 years as an engineer so I have first hand knowledge of the food, water and beverage process.
Large food companies have gone, and are going, to great lengths to influence our health. And it’s not positive. Although I appreciate you may know the quality standards of bottled and tap water, I think food and drink companies overall are not here to help us.
I'm betting you do not. In addition, you are far far more likely of dying from the cholesterol related/lack of exercise plaque in your arteries than any amount of plastic from a food or beverage from any company operating in a first world country regulated by any agency in the order of an FDA.
While I personally disagree that cholesterol causes problems, I do agree a lack of exercise does. But it is irrelevant - mitigating the risks that are within our control are not mutually exclusive. Why not exercise more, reduce cholesterol (if you want) AND not ingest micro plastics?
For as much bottled water being consumed daily by billions and billions of people for the past 30 years or so you should have people dying all over the place...but, that isn't the case now, is it? I know the water bottling process...99.999% of the population has no idea. Yes, I drink it and Im not worried about it. Nobody else needs to be either. Nuff said.
If ingesting plastic (from whatever source) is bad, it doesn’t necessarily mean it would cause deaths, especially on a massive scale. What if it causes higher incidents of other abnormalities, many of which have increased?
 

Poser

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Just posted this is another thread about DWRs, but a recent study showed 100% of all males who were tested had microplastics at a rate of 6.5 to 790 micrograms per gram of tissue present in their testicales. The same study also showed this to be true for domesticated dogs as well with a concentration 3x higher than humans.

I have made an effort to move away from eating/drinking out of plastics as much as reasonably possible in recent years. I've been replacing my tupperware with glass and using titanium bottles and mugs vs. plastic in the backcountry. Still, the exposure is likley pretty high. Folks are 55 are showing lower exposure, but if you're younger than that, you;ve spent most or all of your life ingesting microplastics.
 

Poser

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First, you can get this "plastic" from darn near any type of food or water......including from any and all providers/preparers of food. So, to isolate it from bottled water is just plain stupid and furthermore canyonhunter47, where are you getting bottled water has a lower water safety standard than tap water? I can tell you that you are wrong with 100% certainty. I worked for the largest food company on the planet for 14 years as an engineer so I have first hand knowledge of the food, water and beverage process. I'm betting you do not. In addition, you are far far more likely of dying from the cholesterol related/lack of exercise plaque in your arteries than any amount of plastic from a food or beverage from any company operating in a first world country regulated by any agency in the order of an FDA. For as much bottled water being consumed daily by billions and billions of people for the past 30 years or so you should have people dying all over the place...but, that isn't the case now, is it? I know the water bottling process...99.999% of the population has no idea. Yes, I drink it and Im not worried about it. Nobody else needs to be either. Nuff said.
Do decreasing testosterone levels and sperms counts across the male population concern you at all?
 

5MilesBack

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The CO Springs tap water gives me headaches, like migraine type headaches........even after it's filtered. So for the past many years all I drink is Arrowhead mountain spring water from the Ruby Spring in Chaffee County. 250,000 microplastics at a time. I average 8-10 bottles a day.
 

Rokbar

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I remember when water was starting to be sold in plastic bottles. I couldn't believe people would be dumb enough to buy what they could get right out of their tap. But I fell in line and buy it for trips. The wife can't stand it when I find her half drank bottle at the house, top it off with well water and stick it in the fridge. I don't like seeing the plastic water bottles laying everywhere though. One of the biggest forms of trash around. I do run a natural spring into my well to help with water supply at the house.
 
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