"German Beers Contain Plastic"

If you were to stop using everything that's bad for you in one way or another, you wouldn't use/consume very many things.

 

I agree. I am not worried about beer at all, German or otherwise. I was just responding to the notion that "if it were bad for us, we'd know by now."

"What people can imagine versus reality is very often the biggest stumbling point for environmental and risk management work. People fear what they don't understand or can't see. I'm often amazed at what people environmental issues people get alarmed over, while completely ignoring many of the most common proven toxicological hazards right under their noses because they are familiar and common."

This is true. It's also true that many things have turned out to be bad for us, after we thought, or assumed, or were told, that they were OK. I agree that the studies so far have not shown this stuff is bad for us though.

 

It's closer than you think. Most of the concern regarding microplastics is that they can potentially act like sponges for environmentally persistent organic compounds, i.e. poly aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), poly chlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), polybrominated compounds (flame ******ants), and others. But it's not clear how much of these compounds plastics absorb or how much would be released into an organism after ingestion. What complicates matters more is that many of the compounds are present in other places in our food, water, and local environments, so the toxicology of microplastics has to be teased out from other environmental factors. Not an easy task... For example, most people have probably slept on and worn materials with flame ******ants for most of their lives, and people expose themselves to PAHs when they eat char grilled meats or sit by a campfire.

I understand the concern, but attempting to avoid all potentially harmful materials in our food, water, and environment, is impossible on an individual level and equally impossible from a regulatory and public health stand point. I do not mean the smart ass jokes people make about everyday things like water or salt being "toxic" at certain doses... There are lots of toxicological unknowns out there, but public health decisions have to made based on tested toxicological evidence, not conjecture and potential harm. Individuals can try to make those decisions themselves before the scientists, and public health regulations reach a conclusion, but considering the myriad of potentially harmful materials many of which you probably aren't even aware of, it's sort of like thowing darts at a target blindfolded. Personally, I limit my exposure to the known hazards (of which there are still many to stay on top of) and wait for the experts to weigh in on the unknowns.

 

"I agree that the studies so far have not shown this stuff is bad for us though." Can you please provide references for those studies? I would like to learn more about this topic of microplastics and human health.

Cheers!

 

This was the best article I found by Googling. It summarizes a lot of different research into microplastics and is generally easy to read.

 

Here is another one, with some links to papers

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3299092/