It’s my understanding that many people believe the health dangers of microplastics exposure to be over-hyped, but, in due time, the fallout will become undeniable in much the same way that doctors once recommended cigarettes only to find out many years later that they cause cancer and emphysema and other such undesirable conditions.
Related: Diverse Fat Activist Gets Paid to Lie to Children About Nutrition for Corporate Profit
There I sat, a few weeks back, sipping on matcha tea steeped from a teabag from an ostensibly respectable supplier, believing myself to be doing something responsible health-wise, only to, lo and behold, learn that research suggests that teabag was likely contaminated with microplastics that demonstrably leech into human intestinal cells, into the blood supply, and into every internal organ.
Related: ‘Lab-Grown’ Meat Increases Blood Pressure, Inflammation, Depression: Study
Which led me down a dark rabbit hole.
Where exactly are microplastics to be found in the environment?
A few — by no means an exhaustive list — of culprits:
· Tea bags (Source: Chemosphere)
· Commercially produced beer, tea, and mineral water (Source: Analyst)
· Chewing gum (Source: American Chemical Society)
· Seafood (Source: Frontiers in Toxicology)
· The ocean itself — 24.4 trillion microplastics, approximately (Source: Microplastics and Nanoplastics)
· Table salt (Source: Environmental Science and Pollution Research)
More on the potential devastating health impacts of all of these synthetic and non-biodegradable substances coming up.
Ben Bartee is an independent Bangkok-based American journalist with opposable thumbs.
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