Are we unconsciously drinking microplastics?
August is water quality month and I want to take this opportunity to talk about it and bring awareness around the topic.
Over the last ten years studies and assessments have been looking into the quality of the water in our rivers, our oceans, our home taps and water bottles. They have been looking for harmful chemicals and bacteria but they also have found plastic fibers and microplastic beads.
I knew rivers and oceans were contaminated by plastic pollution but I didn’t think there would also be pieces of plastic in drinking water. Where do they come from, what are the consequences and what can we do about it?
Where do microplastics come from?
I’ll start by being more specific about I am talking. We call microplastic all the fibers, beads and nurdles made of plastic that are smaller than 5 mm knowing that the majority of them are 20-300 μm, as small as a grain of sand.
These are most commonly used in the cosmetic industry, cleaning products and industrial processes. But they are also released by our everyday activities where plastic is involved. Such as washing clothes made of nylon or other artificial fibers. The microfibers from our clothes end up in the drain water which will be eventually filtered and sent to the river or the ocean. Unfortunately the filters aren’t always narrow enough to capture all the microplastics.
Microplastic is also created by the decomposition of larger plastic elements due to UV radiations and waves activity. Once they are in the natural environment these little particles are mistaken for food by the little fish larvaes and big whales that usually eat plancton. And that’s how plastic enters our food chain and how we supposedly ingest the equivalent of a credit card per week, which means 52 per year! Scary
I’ll keep drinking tap water
The United Nations considers a human right to have access to water and sanitation, and it naturally reflects the basic knowledge that without water there is no life.
Sadly, drinking water is a luxury for a lot of human beings and as far as I am concerned I don’t know if we should be alarmed yet by the microplastic situation before we find a solution to bring drinking water to everybody.
What I am trying to understand is for how long can we continue to drink water with microplastic in it without affecting our health. Nothing is scientifically proven yet so we’ll have to wait a little bit more for the answer.
In the meantime, just to be safe, I am going to avoid plastic in my beauty products, my cleaning products and my clothes to prevent additional plastic waste.
I guess I’ll continue to drink water wondering if what I’m tasting is plastic.
