Boiling tap water can remove nearly 90 percent of microplastics, new study finds

[admin]

Tiny plastic particles float inside tap water, and it's still unclear how they impact our health. But boiling the water for 5 minutes could remove most of these microplastics, a new study finds.

Boiling tap water can remove nearly 90 percent of microplastics, new study finds : Read more

 

[Darktangent]

© 2024 American Chemical Society

 

[Rootshot]

Tiny plastic particles float inside tap water, and it's still unclear how they impact our health. But boiling the water for 5 minutes could remove most of these microplastics, a new study finds.

Boiling tap water can remove nearly 90 percent of microplastics, new study finds : Read more

This makes no sense. Boiling plastic cannot transform it into water. If there is an absence of plastic in the boiled samples it implies that the plastic has broken down into its constituent components. These components could be more harmful than the plastic particles.

 

[cicchis0]

This makes no sense. Boiling plastic cannot transform it into water. If there is an absence of plastic in the boiled samples it implies that the plastic has broken down into its constituent components. These components could be more harmful than the plastic particles.

Their explanation for hard water boils down to (pun intended) the plastic particles serving as nucleation sites for calcium carbonate (lime scale) precipitation when the water cools, although they don't present it quite so scientifically and they somewhat gloss over the fact that this doesn't remove them, it just makes them easier to filter out. I suppose that depending on the vessel material and how it is cooled, these precipitates could form on the vessel wall, effectively removing them from suspension. They don't present it, but I suppose a similar process, i.e., the particles adhering to the vessel wall on cooling, through one mechanism or another, might explain a reduction in suspended plastics in boiled and cooled soft water, but whether that is a practical ongoing removal method or not is another matter.

 

[Rootshot]

Their explanation for hard water boils down to (pun intended) the plastic particles serving as nucleation sites for calcium carbonate (lime scale) precipitation when the water cools, although they don't present it quite so scientifically and they somewhat gloss over the fact that this doesn't remove them, it just makes them easier to filter out. I suppose that depending on the vessel material and how it is cooled, these precipitates could form on the vessel wall, effectively removing them from suspension. They don't present it, but I suppose a similar process, i.e., the particles adhering to the vessel wall on cooling, through one mechanism or another, might explain a reduction in suspended plastics in boiled and cooled soft water, but whether that is a practical ongoing removal method or not is another matter.

Thank you for this excellent explanation.

 

[Norm_Shea]

This makes no sense. Boiling plastic cannot transform it into water. If there is an absence of plastic in the boiled samples it implies that the plastic has broken down into its constituent components. These components could be more harmful than the plastic particles.

Or it was volatilized and you're inhaling the components, which doesn't seem ideal either.

Filtering seems like a more effective method because of the utility of not having to boil water for 5 minutes every time before using it. And if you're doing it in bulk before hand, you're probably going to then store it in a plastic container.

 

[Isurus]

The first question you need to ask is, who funded this study?
This is blatant astroturfing. A "study" funded by oil/chemical companies to convince people that plastic in our water isn't that bad!

 

[bolide]

Their explanation for hard water boils down to (pun intended) the plastic particles serving as nucleation sites for calcium carbonate (lime scale) precipitation when the water cools, although they don't present it quite so scientifically and they somewhat gloss over the fact that this doesn't remove them, it just makes them easier to filter out. I suppose that depending on the vessel material and how it is cooled, these precipitates could form on the vessel wall, effectively removing them from suspension. They don't present it, but I suppose a similar process, i.e., the particles adhering to the vessel wall on cooling, through one mechanism or another, might explain a reduction in suspended plastics in boiled and cooled soft water, but whether that is a practical ongoing removal method or not is another matter.

The study did say that the particles and the CaCO₃ formed an "incrustation," or in plain English, they deposited on the vessel walls.

 

[Steve.Nordquist]

Or it was volatilized and you're inhaling the components, which doesn't seem ideal either.

Filtering seems like a more effective method because of the utility of not having to boil water for 5 minutes every time before using it. And if you're doing it in bulk before hand, you're probably going to then store it in a plastic container.

Or rather if you put a heat exchanger on your house's e.g. city water inlet, you can have a few meters of large glass^wcopper where the water's boiled, then more where it's cooled and you nerf the sedimentation and such in that loop and storage, so then you get to process the nanoplastics-in-carbonate waste when mucking out that tank (mind the glass.)

Great props for the water loops behind solar use-case (in what passes for warm days) that at least brings some cope to the idea of hundreds of yards of water pipe and panel, their interior surfaces (superoleophobic transit for my true friends, heat transfer transit for my hot friends,) and the particles they may part with.

Ah p-Spring, when a young fam organization's fancy turns to water dungeon services.

 

[Steve.Nordquist]

The study did say that the particles and the CaCO₃ formed an "incrustation," or in plain English, they deposited on the vessel walls.

It's like, gosh I hope nothing ingests the new product through an acidic digestive system. No problems here since I changed to an all-caustic enteroimmune core. (Yes a little sarcasm.) Once you get the first rejection from MDPI J. Look Don't Overthink It things get easier.