Microplastics Filter

My son bought and installed a microplastics filter under our kitchen sink. He's concerned about keeping his boomer parents healthy, and, unlike me, he keeps abreast of environmental news.

I've been skeptical about all the climate doomism that makes our lives expensive and needlessly worse--get rid of our incandescent bulbs, gasoline cars, and reliable nuclear and fossil fuel power plants!--but there might be something to the concerns about microplastics, which are in the seas around us: [bold added]

Microplastic particles are widespread in Monterey Bay anchovies and the diving seabirds that eat them as a main food source — which could possibly impact the birds’ reproductive systems, according to a new study.

Scientists at UC Santa Cruz, UC Davis and the San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance studied microplastic pollution in Monterey Bay by testing microplastic particles in the water and in anchovies and common murres, a bird species found in abundance in the region.

They found that 58% of anchovies and 100% of murres had microplastic particles in their digestive tracts, according to the study published Nov. 4 in the Environmental Pollution journal.

The study also comes two months after California became the first state in the United States to begin requiring water agencies to test for microplastics, which can be found everywhere from clothing, food packaging, drinking water and the ocean. Another recent study by Stanford University scientists found that whales are ingesting “colossal” amounts of microplastics that mainly come from the fish they feed on.

The troubling increase in cancer among young people causes us to ask what's different about us when we were kids in the 50's and 60's, and the leading factors seem to be excess sugar to less sunshine and exercise. The ubiquity of microplastics may be an answer, too.