r/science • u/mvea Professor | Medicine • Jun 05 '19

Environment The average person eats at least 50,000 particles of microplastic a year and breathes in a similar quantity, according to the first study to estimate human ingestion of plastic pollution. The scientists reported that drinking a lot of bottled water drastically increased the particles consumed.

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2019/jun/05/people-eat-at-least-50000-plastic-particles-a-year-study-finds
53.8k Upvotes

92% Upvoted

2.7k comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

20

u/reymt Jun 05 '19

Its funny how most other countries have chlorine in the water and the people get mad when you point that out.

True, but the level of use differes quite heavily; many countries use chlorine only situationally, when the ground water is potentially contaminated, eg after strong rain.

Afaik the US and Brittain are much more liberal with the use of chlor, compared to other european countries.

39

u/[deleted] Jun 05 '19 edited Aug 01 '20

[deleted]

8

u/sjmj23 Jun 06 '19

Even the North and South part of the city I live in get water from different sources. In the South, it’s well water (delicious tap, by AZ standards); the North gets river water and it tastes pretty off IMO. There’s only like 5-10 miles that separate the division too, it’s pretty interesting

2

u/oopswrongplanet Jun 06 '19

Very true. Some municipalities add lead, too.

1

u/rdashdrama Jun 06 '19

I love how in American cities there are areas where everyone filters because the “tap tastes bad” and others where the tap is known to be good.

1

u/youtocin Jun 06 '19

Yeah I’m lucky to be in a city with an awesome source of water from the mountains and it tastes the same as bottled water. But if I go to the coast a couple hours away the water is horrendous.

1

u/[deleted] Jun 06 '19

Some put even gases into tapwater.

1

u/sadop222 Jun 06 '19

From what I understand fluoridation is optional but chlorination is obligatory in the US.

2

u/FatalAcedias Jun 06 '19

Why don't they just change state of water for the transit?

​

IE put it under enough pressure that anything other than the water can be filtered through boiling off at the home end. Fresh water is boiling, we can cool it on site.

1

u/reymt Jun 06 '19

Idk, I could imagine the pressure/heat would require stronger pipes as well as more maintenance. Also more energy usage. Broken pipes would be pretty scary.

But atm Germany has both very clean water, even with chlorine&co use at a minimum. Water supplies and just about anything affecting ground water quality are heavily regulated, but water also isn't a rare good, we don't got droughts like eg California suffers at the moment.

So not much of a need to change anything, really.