Comment by myshpa | Hacker News Reader

Comment by myshpa | Hacker News Reader

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> is this really claiming that plastic starts to fall apart from the get-go

Yes.

Microplastics are everywhere. Everywhere on the planet we look, we find microplastics. Just ... everywhere.

Beekeepers are using plastic worker brood foundations, for example. Honey is often stored in plastic buckets and bottles, somewhere in the production process/transport.

And it's not just the honey.

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2022/jul/08/micropla...

Microplastics detected in meat, milk and blood of farm animals

https://www.awi.de/en/about-us/service/press/single-view/ark...

Arctic ice algae heavily contaminated with microplastics

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2022/mar/24/micropla...

Microplastics found in human blood for first time

https://www.nationalgeographic.com/environment/article/micro...

Microplastics found in 90 percent of table salt

https://phys.org/news/2020-03-plastic-bags-bottles-microplas...

Opening plastic bags and bottles may generate microplastics

https://www.nationalgeographic.com/environment/article/micro...

Microplastics are raining down from the sky

https://www.sciencenews.org/article/plastics-remote-places-m...

Plastics are showing up in the world’s most remote places, including Mount Everest

> Microplastics are everywhere. Everywhere on the planet we look, we find microplastics. Just ... everywhere.

I appreciate the links, but that's not what I asked. I know microplastics are everywhere. Do you have studies showing that plastic begins to distintegrate immediately? What's the working lifetime for a plastic container before it begins to distintegrate and leach microplastics into what's stored in it?

> Do you have studies showing that plastic begins to distintegrate immediately

It's an area of active research, so ... I don't. If you find something, let me know.

https://www.nist.gov/news-events/news/2022/04/nist-study-sho...

NIST Study Shows Everyday Plastic Products Release Trillions of Microscopic Particles Into Water

... when plastic products were exposed to hot water, they released trillions of nanoparticles per liter into the water ...

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/37343248/

Assessing the Release of Microplastics and Nanoplastics from Plastic Containers and Reusable Food Pouches: Implications for Human Health

... microwave heating caused the highest release of microplastics and nanoplastics into food compared to other usage scenarios such as refrigeration or room-temperature storage. Some containers could release as many as 4.22 million microplastic and 2.11 billion nanoplastic particles from only one square centimeter of plastic area within 3 min of microwave heating.

https://www.nature.com/articles/s43016-020-00171-y

Microplastic release from the degradation of polypropylene feeding bottles during infant formula preparation

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2018/mar/15/micropla...

WHO launches health review after microplastics found in 90% of bottled water

Researchers find levels of plastic fibres in popular bottled water brands could be twice as high as those found in tap water

The microplastics in a product don’t have to originate in a product’s final packaging. Things like airborne particles on the production line, filaments from filters and cleaning equipment, manufacturing swarf, and cleaning processes that are oriented to killing small things with heat / UV / chemistry rather than filtering tbem out is probably more of the answer than leaching and degradation.

Understood, but the article specifically said: "anything stored in plastic bottles, plastic wrap, or cans/cartons lined with plastic".

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