Scientists Discover Way To Remove Roughly 90% Of Microplastics In Water By Boiling It

The following report is by Eurek Alert!, with some additional citations from the published study:

Nano- and microplastics are seemingly everywhere — water, soil and the air. While many creative strategies have been attempted to get rid of these plastic bits, one unexpectedly effective solution for cleaning up drinking water, specifically, might be as simple as brewing a cup of tea or coffee. As reported in ACS’ Environmental Science & Technology Letters, boiling and filtering calcium-containing tap water could help remove nearly 90% of the nano- and microplastics present.

Drinking boiled water apparently is a viable long-term strategy for reducing global exposure to NMPs. Drinking boiled water, however, is often regarded as a local tradition and prevails only in a few regions.

Our results have ratified a highly feasible strategy to reduce human NMP exposure and established the foundation for further investigations with a much larger number of samples.

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.

The researchers wrote

Contamination of water supplies with nano- and microplastics (NMPs), which can be as small as one thousandth of a millimeter in diameter or as large as 5 millimeters, has become increasingly common. The effects of these particles on human health are still under investigation, though current studies suggest that ingesting them could affect the gut microbiome. Some advanced drinking water filtration systems capture NMPs, but simple, inexpensive methods are needed to substantially help reduce human plastic consumption. So, Zhanjun Li, Eddy Zeng and colleagues wanted to see whether boiling could be an effective method to help remove NMPs from both hard and soft tap water.

The researchers collected samples of hard tap water from Guangzhou, China, and spiked them with different amounts of NMPs. Samples were boiled for five minutes and allowed to cool. Then, the team measured the free-floating plastic content. Boiling hard water, which is rich in minerals, will naturally form a chalky substance known as limescale, or calcium carbonate (CaCO₃). Results from these experiments indicated that as the water temperature increased, CaCO₃ formed incrustants, or crystalline structures, which encapsulated the plastic particles.

Zeng says that over time, these incrustants would build up like typical limescale, at which point they could be scrubbed away to remove the NMPs. He suggests any remaining incrustants floating in the water could be removed by pouring it through a simple filter such as a coffee filter.

In the tests, the encapsulation effect was more pronounced in harder water — in a sample containing 300 milligrams of CaCO₃ per liter of water, up to 90% of free-floating MNPs were removed after boiling. However, even in soft water samples (less than 60 milligrams CaCO₃ per liter), boiling still removed around 25% of NMPs. The researchers say that this work could provide a simple, yet effective, method to reduce NMP consumption.

The authors acknowledge funding from the National Natural Science Foundation of China.

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AUTHOR COMMENTARY

It is worth also acknowledging that the Chinese scientists wrote in their abstract that “however, it remains unclear whether boiling is effective in removing NMPs in tap water.” Nevertheless, their evidence does suggest that boiling still can help to remove a great deal of these microplastics. More studies should be conducted as I am sure we will get more of them in the years to come.

There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man: but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it.

1 Corinthians 10:13

God always creates methods for people to escape temptation and corruption, as he does not tempt any man with evil (James 1:13-16); and while the obvious answer is to do your best to avoid using plastic with everything, this study hints that something so simple as boiling the water can remove a lot of the plastics.

The WinePress has reported on the microplastics and nanoplastics in other reports, and documented their effects:

• Consumer Reports Study Finds That Most American Foods Are Loaded With Plasticizers, Causing Diabetes, Infertility, Etc.
• Study Links Nanoplastics To Parkinson’s Disease And Other Types Of Dementia
• Microplastics In Packaging Found In Human Heart Tissues For First Time
• Microplastics Have Now Been Detected In The Blood For The First Time
• Shock Study Reveals Bottled Water Contains An Average Of 240,000 Pieces Of Nanoplastics
• Microplastics Contained In Food And Drinks Are Developing Inflammatory Bowel Diseases
• Investigation Reveals More Foods Are Loaded With Harmful Plastics

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[7] Who goeth a warfare any time at his own charges? who planteth a vineyard, and eateth not of the fruit thereof? or who feedeth a flock, and eateth not of the milk of the flock? [8] Say I these things as a man? or saith not the law the same also? [9] For it is written in the law of Moses, Thou shalt not muzzle the mouth of the ox that treadeth out the corn. Doth God take care for oxen? [10] Or saith he it altogether for our sakes? For our sakes, no doubt, this is written: that he that ploweth should plow in hope; and that he that thresheth in hope should be partaker of his hope. (1 Corinthians 9:7-10).

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