According to a new study, there is a simple way to remove toxic chemicals from tap water using two common household items.
Researchers at Jinan University in China have found that boiling water and then filtering it with a coffee filter removed almost 90 percent of the small plastics that are linked to cancer and reproductive disorders.
These microplastics are so ubiquitous that they were found in 129 of 159 tap water samples from 14 countries around the world in the study.
Boiling water was particularly effective when used on “hard” water or water with high concentrations of minerals such as calcium and magnesium.
At high temperatures, lime becomes solid, effectively “embedding” the plastic particles and making them easy to remove through a filter.
Boiling water can trap nanoplastics and microplastics within lime particles, which can then be easily filtered out.
Over time, microplastics break down into nanoplastics, which are so small that they can pass through our intestines and lungs into the blood, passing through the body to organs such as the heart and brain.
Plastic particles contain phthalates, a group of chemicals used to make plastics more durable, flexible and last longer, which are known to interfere with the production of hormones in the body, which can increase the risk of reproductive disorders. and cancers.
Phthalates are “linked to developmental, reproductive, brain, immune, and other problems,” according to the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences.
Nano- and microplastics also carry toxins on their surface, such as heavy metals.
Over time, microplastics break down into nanoplastics, which are so small that they can pass through our intestines and lungs into the blood, passing through the body to organs such as the heart and brain.
Some advanced drinking water filtration systems capture nano- and microplastics, but simple, inexpensive methods are needed to substantially help reduce human consumption of plastic.
Reports indicate that plastic chemicals are linked to $249 billion in healthcare costs in the United States in just one year.
The map compiled by the US Geological Survey shows the number of detections of PFAS or ‘permanent chemicals’ at a large number of sites across the country between 2016 and 2021.
Researchers wanted to see if boiling could be an effective method to help remove plastics from both hard and soft tap water.
Hard and soft water differ in the minerals they contain.
More particles could be removed from hard water than from soft water, because the microplastics are trapped inside the lime particles, and hard water has more of them.
Soft water does not have high levels of calcium and magnesium, but generally has higher salt concentrations unless it has been softened with a potassium-based filtration system.
About 85 percent of U.S. water is classified as hard, but many homes and businesses use water softeners to extract minerals and soften water.
The researchers collected tap water samples from Guangzhou, China, and added different amounts of nano- and microplastics.
They found an average concentration of one milligram per liter of nano- and microplastics.
The samples were boiled for five minutes and allowed to cool. The team then measured the free-floating plastic content.
When boiling hard water, which is rich in minerals, a chalky substance known as lime or calcium carbonate will naturally form..
“We estimated that the daily intake of nano- and microplastics through consumption of boiled water was two to five times lower than that of tap water,” Zeng said.
The results of these experiments indicated that as the water temperature increased, the lime formed scales or crystalline structures that encapsulated the plastic particles.
Zeng says that over time, these foulants would build up like typical limescale, at which point they could be removed to remove nano- and microplastics.
It suggests that any remaining scale floating in the water could be removed by pouring it through a simple filter, such as a coffee filter.
In tests, the encapsulation effect was more pronounced in harder water: In a sample containing 300 milligrams of lime per liter of water, up to 90 percent of free-floating nanoplastics and microplastics were removed after boiling.
However, even in soft water samples (less than 60 milligrams of lime per liter), boiling still removed about 25 percent of the nano- and microplastics.
The researchers say this work could provide a simple but effective method to reduce the consumption of nano- and microplastics.
The study was published in the journal ACS Environmental Science and Technology Letters.
Exposure to phthalates is attributed to 100,000 premature deaths in the US each year.