Tiny plastic particles float inside tap water, and it's still unclear how they impact our health. But boiling the water for 5 minutes could remove most of them, a new study finds. most of them
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.
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.
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.
So, the boiling doesn’t remove it at all; it pre-treats hard water, making it capable of being filtered out afterwards.
uh… it seems like it… if that is the case, the whole article is misleading at best.
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.
gotta make the water hard too, doesn’t work without hard water
Many regions won’t need that of course :)
But I can’t even make myself hard 😭
too soon.
Traps it how - guessing as a gas? What the fuck are microplastics and how does clear water trap that? I’m lost as fuck
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.
“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.
If I have soft water, can I add a Tums to my boiling water?