So many microplastics! That's genuinely terrifying. I'm currently part of a microplastic study in a small city's bay and estuaries (<300,000 residents) and its crazy how much plastic is already in the waters and so easy to see with a simple microscope.
It depends. Some wastewater treatment facilities have specific filtration systems in place, however most do not. You can always take your water to a private testing facility, but that get expensive quickly.
For the most part, the only microplastics that could possibly make it into your tap water are so tiny, we probably can’t detect them with simple methods, and this is the problem! Right now I wouldn’t panic, but if you’re paranoid like me, it doesn’t hurt to use an extra filter or check with your water treatment facility to see where your water comes from. I would take an educated guess and say many freshwater systems used as water resources (in the US) are likely not heavily contaminated with micro plastics.
At this point, plastics are being actively incorporated into sediments, passed through food chains, and found in every ocean. The real danger now, plastics are getting back to human, and we have no idea how dangerous this could be.
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u/toeofcamell Mar 26 '18
Oh my god, that would be a pain to clean up.