this post was submitted on 01 Mar 2024
147 points (100.0% liked)

Science

12997 readers
56 users here now

Studies, research findings, and interesting tidbits from the ever-expanding scientific world.

Subcommunities on Beehaw:


Be sure to also check out these other Fediverse science communities:


This community's icon was made by Aaron Schneider, under the CC-BY-NC-SA 4.0 license.

founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] [email protected] 67 points 8 months ago (2 children)

Somehow, it feels worse if it is an aerosol.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 8 months ago

Nanoplastic kitchen cloud

[–] [email protected] 86 points 8 months ago (1 children)

I read the article. Apparently it only really works with hard water - that's water with a high concentration of calcium carbonate. At high temperatures, the calcium carbonate becomes a solid, trapping the microplastics inside it, which is then removed from the water with a regular filter.

[–] [email protected] 78 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago) (2 children)

So, the boiling doesn’t remove it at all; it pre-treats hard water, making it capable of being filtered out afterwards.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 8 months ago (4 children)

Traps it how - guessing as a gas? What the fuck are microplastics and how does clear water trap that? I’m lost as fuck

[–] [email protected] 2 points 8 months ago

The calcium carbonate in hard water precipitates out when you boil it, i.e. it turns solid.

Microplastics make for great nucleation points for the calcium carbonate to latch onto. So, the microplastics became super easy to filter out of the water (with some getting stuck to the bottom of the kettle in that white scale that you have to use vinegar to clean out.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 8 months ago

The calcium carbonate in hard water precipitates out when you boil it, i.e. it turns solid.

Microplastics make for great nucleation points for the calcium carbonate to latch onto. So, the microplastics became super easy to filter out of the water (with some getting stuck to the bottom of the kettle in that white scale that you have to use vinegar to clean out.

[–] [email protected] 12 points 8 months ago (1 children)

"calcium carbonate in the (hard) water became solid at higher temperatures, trapping the plastic particles within"

No gas involved. They did recommend straining the boiled water through a coffee filter and the harder the water the better.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 8 months ago (1 children)

If I have soft water, can I add a Tums to my boiling water?

[–] [email protected] 6 points 8 months ago

Just put it in the freezer for an hour or two

[–] [email protected] 6 points 8 months ago

By causing it to be absorbed into the calcium carbonate that is in hard water

[–] [email protected] 37 points 8 months ago (1 children)

uh... it seems like it.. if that is the case, the whole article is misleading at best.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago) (1 children)

Would that just mean boiling water and then filtering it?

If so, doesn't seem as misleading so much as just missing an extra step for a headline. Edit: of course, in addition to the hard water specification.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 8 months ago (2 children)

gotta make the water hard too, doesn't work without hard water

[–] [email protected] 2 points 8 months ago

Many regions won't need that of course :)

[–] [email protected] 3 points 8 months ago (1 children)

But I can't even make myself hard 😭

[–] [email protected] 2 points 8 months ago