With the rise in microplastics, the need for plumbing solutions is getting greater every year.
Environmental pollution from plastic waste is a major global concern, as plastic does not fully biodegrade. What scientists are finding is that the plastics can often break down to particles smaller than the width of an average human hair (90 microns), but they do not break down completely. They call these pieces ‘microplastics’, and they are being discovered in both tap and bottled water.
Information about microplastics is slowly coming to light, as their particles end up in the air, in our water, and in some of our food sources. In fact, according to a new study, some scientists estimate that we consume approximately 5g per person, per week of microplastics from these multiple sources. That is equivalent to an average credit card per week!
Many people still do not know how prevalent an issue this is and will continue to become. With this recent push to increase awareness surrounding microplastics, there has also been a surge in the search for a solution. One of the best solutions for individual residences at present is reverse osmosis drinking systems. Reverse osmosis filters can remove particles as small as 0.001 microns, which means they can filter almost all known microplastics out of drinking water, drastically decreasing the number of particles consumed.
While the effects of consuming microplastics is still largely unknown, it is a likely supposition that ingestion exposes us to known harmful chemicals found in many of these different plastics, especially as the tinier microplastics have been found to pass through our intestinal walls and from there, throughout our bodies. Such chemicals have been linked to a variety of health problems, including reproductive harm, obesity, organ problems, and developmental delays in children, so further studies continue to be done.
Reverse osmosis systems have always been popular for filtering sodium levels, unwanted chlorine, contaminants, and minerals, but now there is a more alarming contaminant to filter. There is a steady increase in demand as more people learn about microplastics, and plumbers are stocking more, in order to meet demand. We recommend that you speak to your plumber for more information.