Microplastics are an inescapable poison.
They’re in the fish, fruits, and vegetables you eat…
They’re in the containers your takeout food comes in…
They’re even in the water that pours from your faucet — water you use for cooking, drinking and bathing, giving it multiple ways to enter your body and wreak havoc.
And using bottled water isn’t the answer, either.
But a recent study has found a simple way to remove poisonous microplastics from your water, something you can do easily at home for no extra cost.
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The problem with microplastics
Microplastics attract chemicals that cause reproductive disorders, thyroid disease, asthma, and cancers, just to name a few.
These chemicals are known as endocrine or hormone disruptors.
Every time you eat or drink something with microplastics, or are exposed to them by breathing them or through your skin, you’re getting a heavy dose of hormone disruptors like PCB and phthalates.
As if it couldn’t get worse, microplastics act a kind of “magnet” for other environmental pollutants, concentrating them on its surfaces, ‘ferrying’ them through our digestive tract, and releasing them in a concentrated form in certain areas — thus causing increased toxicity.
But, until now, I haven’t come across very many effective and inexpensive ways to share…
Boil and strain to remove up to 90% of microplastics
A team from Guangzhou Medical University and Jinan University in China added microplastics (about the size of a grain of rice) and nanoplastics (even smaller) to water samples.
They then boiled the water and filtered out any resulting solids. In this process, up to 90% of plastic particles were removed from “hard water,” which naturally forms a build-up of limescale (calcium carbonate) when heated.
This limescale (calcium carbonate) is what you see on the bottom of your teakettle if you live in a hard water area of the country (about 85% of the U.S.).
As the hot temperature forces the calcium carbonate out of the water, it clings to the surface of microplastic particles, trapping them in a solid crust. Then the lime-encrusted plastic is removed just by pouring the water through a simple filter — like the stainless-steel mesh used to strain tea.
Even if you live in an area with soft water (low in minerals), boiling your water can remove a quarter of the microplastics. That’s 25% less for you to be drinking or cooking with.
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“This simple boiling water strategy can ‘decontaminate’ NMPs from household tap water and has the potential for harmlessly alleviating human intake of NMPs through water consumption,” says the researchers.
In addition, try cutting out the use of plastic bags and plastic food containers, plastic wrap and eating utensils.
And remember to eat to protect your gut. Your intestine is your first line of defense from toxins. And when you’ve got a leaky gut, tiny toxin carriers like microplastics can walk right in.
Eating organic produce, getting enough fiber, and taking probiotic supplements are vital to keeping your gut strong enough to defend you from toxic invaders.
Sources:
There’s a Surprisingly Simple Way to Remove Microplastics From Your Drinking Water — Science Alert
Drinking Boiled Tap Water Reduces Human Intake of Nanoplastics and Microplastics — Environmental Science & Technology Letters
Microplastics Infiltrate Every Organ, Including Brain, Study in Mice Shows — Science Alert
A look at hard water across the US — Homewater 101