Water doesn’t just go into bottles. Plastics go into water. That means it goes into us.

Posted on by Peter D. Buck
If you are interested in:
a. the new reports about micro plastics in bottled water,
b. how the new EPA is eliminating rules on toxics,
c. how Neslte and other plastics-dependent beverage companies affect your daily life…
you should come to the Palmer Museum of Art’s Entangled Conversations tomorrow. My old boss, Dr. Denice Wardrop, is going to talk about how plastics break down and degrade and end up in oceans, soils, and us. It’s fascinating, brilliant, and slightly terrifying.
 
A lot of people have been circulating this news story on microplastics in bottled water. They tested 11 brands of bottled water tested in a recent study that found that plastics aren’t just in the bottle, but in the water in the bottle. Therefore, they’re in us.
 
We know that plastics leach into our waterways from streams to oceans and accumulate in organism…including us. Some people think that if we just get rid of the micro-beads we will be better off. But that’s sadly false. Plastics break down in lots of ways. Wear and tear in our hands to how they get crumpled up by people to hydraulic action by waves to thermal and UV. The really scary stuff is when they get very small and then can get into everything. That includes us.
 
PS: Today, I had the good fortune to walk around the Plastic Entanglements exhibition with Denice while she practiced her presentation. It was inspiring.

 

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