I got my county #water quality report with my utility bill yesterday. I've been curious about micro- or #nanoplastics levels and unfortunately nothing on that was reported. I assume they are not monitoring it. ☹️
#microplastics
Most states and local utilities haven't been. The new PFA rules came from the EPA's monitoring under UCMR(Unregulated Contaminant Monitoring Rule) for example, and there's a chance they have data on your water here:
https://www.epa.gov/dwucmr/fifth-unregulated-contaminant-monitoring-rule-data-finder#data-finder
@BE What contaminants in here = "micro / nanoplastics"? My report did have all those listed. I would think there are many plastics that are not among these compounds. ?
Looks like the fifth is mostly PFAs along with Lithium. I should have linked you to all 5, and not just the most recent. The fourth is here and ended in 2021:
https://www.epa.gov/dwucmr/fourth-unregulated-contaminant-monitoring-rule
You might have some luck under the alcohols. 1-butanol, for instance, is used in many plastics and may indicate breakdown of plastics.
If you're looking out for something like "Here's the number of microplastics in x volume of water" then I don't think that number exists for municipal water to date. The EPA's in the early days of coming up with a standard test for that:
https://www.epa.gov/sciencematters/assessing-methods-measuring-microplastics-water
As of 2019 the WHO only found 2 studies on microplastic concentrations in tap water to date:
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0043135419301794
If they take up the same pace that they did for PFAs then local utilities won't be giving a microplastics concentration number for another decade, at least.
Yeah, that's why if I were really curious, I'd be looking for the breakdown chemical signatures.
But, you can assume you have PFAs, micro and nanoplastics, etc. in your tap water and act accordingly. They're ubiquitous.
@BE I filter my drinking water at home so my water is probably in pretty decent shape. That briefing I found had some things in it you never think about...opening a snack bag releases thousands of plastic particles? Think about how just about everything is packaged in plastic. I recently stopped using plastic containers to warm up leftovers in the microwave. But I still use them to refrigerate food. Looks like even that's not a great idea. Anyway, there's a lot.
It definitely is a lot. I've also spent years trying to be as plastic free as possible, and it's hard in modern society.
Just going back to the water part, even if your utility filters out all micro and nano plastics, most houses have PVC or PEX pipes, which also shed micro plastics over time on your end. Filtering at your tap is the only real solution, but, utilities could do a lot more, too.
If you felt like getting deep into the science of plastics breakdown and possible indicator chemicals, this is the paper:
@BE Great, thanks. I do like reviews. Very helpful.
@BE Yes, "number of microplastics in x volume of water" and you are right, they're not. I just looked at the assessment link a couple minutes ago.
Related:
https://mas.to/@Nonya_Bidniss/112456750667380275