Study finds Baby Poop Is Loaded With Microplastics, 10x more than Adults | Hacker News Reader

Study finds Baby Poop Is Loaded With Microplastics, 10x more than Adults

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24 pointsIronWolve5 comments

We need to ban polyester. It sheds microplastic fibers, and its coated with hormone-disrupting flame retardants.

When you search 'baby blanket' on Amazon, 6 of the 8 top results are made of polyester.

While we're at it, we should also ban all hormone-disrupting chemical additives (PFAS etc.) from being used in products or packaging that have direct contact with humans, human food or water, or can expect to be deposited into the environment (eg. fire extinguishers, ski wax).

We should probably also mandate international standard sizes of clear and dark-green glass for use in food packaging, to make re-use easier (eg. Pepsi should be able to re-use a 500ml standard glass beverage container for Coke or Beer).

Germany, and presumably several of its neighbors, has several standard beer, soda, water, juice and yoghurt (of all things) glass bottle/jar types, and any retailer that sells any brand of a product in one of the standard bottle types must accept that bottle type from any other brand for deposit return. For example, a shop that sells a few regional beer brands has to accept any deposit beer bottle, but does not have to accept yoghurt jars or milk bottles.

Plastic (deposit and otherwise) bottles have become more popular over the past decade or so, and most fresh milk is sold in cartons, not glass bottles.

In Finland, we had this for soda and beer, but I hear it was dismantled because it was considered anti-competitive, bringing scale benefits for large companies having big bottle collection and washing operations.

Glass bottles went away anyway though, which is great for kids and dogs walking outside.

> Do not prepare infant formula with hot water in a plastic bottle — use a glass bottle and transfer it over to the plastic one once the liquid reaches room temperature. Vacuum and sweep to keep floors clear of microfibers. Avoid plastic wrappers and containers when possible.

Good rules to follow but no actual solution to the plastics causing this issue?

Recently we've had a number of fecal transplant articles submitted here on HN, lately with a focus on the benefits of transplanting feces of the young into the old[0][1].

The cynic in me would say the secret to the benefits is the microplastics.

You heard it here first, folks! When petrochemical companies pay influencers to talk up the benefits nootropic/probiotic/performance-enhancing microplastics, you'll know to think twice.

[0] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24743630

[1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24680601

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