this post was submitted on 20 Jun 2025
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This is expensive and time consuming Because this is not a permanent solution (the patient will get reinundated with microplastics shortly after the procedure), they will need reapplications throughout their whole lives. Thus, this will likely only be available to the ultrarich.
The article does point out that prevention is still the best solution. But the corpos make that hard.
There are other ways to lower the amount of plastic in you. If you donate your blood you can measurably lower your pfas levels. Really just removing blood which carries plastic through your whole body will also lower your concentration of plastics. Because plastic is in the water, make sure you drink filtered water. They do make filters that will catch micro plastics and some will advertise it. If you want to keep your levels lower avoid hydrophobic coatings that sit next to food for extended periods of time and definitely don't heat that food next to a hydrophobic coating. Think microwaving food in a container with coatings that'll leach into the food. So bags of popcorn should be avoided like the plague, unfortunately.
Source: Veritasium, skip to at least 50:15, but honestly I'd recommend watching the whole thing https://youtu.be/SC2eSujzrUY.
If it's Veritasium, I would just recommend watching. End of sentence. This bloke is amazing.
What's a "hydrophobic coating" in relation to foods?
I don't use plastic to heat anything up. I may buy microwavable foods, but then scrape them into a metallic or class container and heat them in the oven (that's more out of necessity, as I don't have a microwave oven). And I don't like popped corn (though I kind of wish I did).
I just hate that he exudes privilege. It's not his fault, he does amazing science communication. But man it's hard for me to watch his stuff.
And if there's ever a brand integration, he'll spout their marketing drivel uncritically and try to pass it off as science. I can't trust him anymore.
Yeah, that's a good way of putting it. I don't like him either, but the information is useful and/or interesting so I've been watching some of them.
Hydrophobic coating loosely means a thin water proof coating on a material that otherwise isn’t waterproof.
Example: the previously mentioned popcorn bags are paper based but with a thin plastic based coating. (Historically we used to use wax for this kind of thing but in the modern day it’s almost always plastic)
Not that containers made of glass, ceramic, or metals that don’t corrode don’t need and typically don’t have hydrophobic coatings.
Ah ok. Yeah, that makes sense. Thanks, mate!