Nanoween

September 27, 2024 – In the spirit of approaching Halloween, the hidden “ghosts” of bottled water is nanoplastics. These nano particles are ubiquitous in our environment including tap water, in soils that grow our food, in laundry strips, and also travel in the air we breathe (for the latter, see the last section below). There are medical concerns from eating or inhaling nanoplastics since they can absorb toxins and easily penetrate cellular membranes to threaten the wellbeing of organisms.

We have a theory that the high purity of Watt-Ahh with its stable active structure that does not cling to the internal surface of the PET-1 (polyethylene terephthalate) bottle has less nanoplastics compared with other bottled water brands including those with silica minerals.

New Technology to Measure Nano Plastics in Water

Wouldn’t it be great to have an app on our smart phones that can view in real-time nano plastics in the water before we decide to drink? It seems promising that we may carry in the future such AI technology to use a special camera on our phones to instantly view such ghost plastics in bottled water.

Laboratories have recently discovered that “AI Assisted Nan-DIHM” device (or artificial intelligence-assisted nanodigital in-line holographic microscopy)  can immediately identify micro- and nanoplastics within waterborne particles. Of course, the marketing name in the app store may have to be more creative to encourage customers to download the app. In the interim, I could not find out how researchers obtained such a device.

Warning: I am not talking about a device developed by another researcher that is supposedly low cost and portable paired with an app on a smart phone using florescent labeling to detect small plastic particles in a droplet of heated water that was held by a disposable polystyrene (PS) cup (not from PET-1 plastic containers used in bottled water). My search for such a device and app got me into a sketchy website. This research paper states no technology exists for real-time in situ environmental nanoplastic detection. So it is best to wait for a more legitimate and science-based AI assisted device that gives meaningful results on nanoplastics in bottled water, specifically held in PET-1 plastic bottles.

Taxonomy of Ghost Plastics

Taxonomy is typically classifications of living and extinct organisms. Interestingly, there is a taxonomy of the varying configurations of nano particles from polypropylene (PP or as an example, yogurt cups), PS, PET, polyurethane (PUR), and polyvinyl chloride (PVC) that can be differentiated by using the AI Assisted Nan-DIHM device. Some of the various squiggly forms are shown in the chart below.

Removal of Nano Plastics in Water

Another possible scientific breakthrough is a laboratory has developed a solvent that can be added to water to suspend plastics at the surface. The researchers are using PS plastic and want to scale up to clean lakes and someday oceans of nano plastics. One challenge for drinking water, however, is how to skim the upper surface of the water before drinking (assuming that any remaining solvent is safe to drink). Again, I must caution that although interesting, more science is needed on such a solvent that can capture the allusive ghost plastic. Snake oil and water, as you know, do not mix.

Source of this link.

Aerial Plastic Ghosts

We all know to retry to recycle plastic containers and if not, the plastic floats in our oceans and waterways that can contaminate our drinking water with micro plastics. Sunlight on plastics even dumped in landfills can change the molecular structure to become more brittle and breakdown into micro fragments which are difficult to either remove or reduce them.  The photo to the left shows plastic debris that recently floated across from a surging Gulf of Mexico to the east side of Midnight Pass Road, a main thoroughfare of Siesta Key in Sarasota, FL. during monster Hurricane Helene. It seems disjointed to see how many blue recycle bins were captured in the rack line surrounded by other plastic and vegetative debris.

But how do micro plastics get into the air we breathe? Researchers are finding micro plastics accumulating in human airways including lower portions of the lungs that can induce inflammation, oxidative stress and impaired lung function. A recent article published by the National Library of Medicine dated January of 2024, states … “Microplastics are generated from a range of sources, but there are four primary areas that significantly contribute to their proliferation: cosmetics, textiles, single-use plastics, and tires.” So the sources of micro plastics come from washing plastic polymers in cosmetics off of our faces, washing microfibers off of our clothes, disposing of empty yogurt cups, and driving our cars to work such that the plastic polymers in the tires become airborne. The latter seems to be more suspect when microplastics are directly inhaled by humans since the same article states microplastics from tires remain in the air for extended periods, depending on wind speed and carrying capacity. Of all of the primary sources of microplastics, according to the same article, synthetic textiles and tires contribute combine the largest share at over 60% and dust at about 25%. Personal care products come in at 2%.

So back to AI, it will likely be startling for us to be able to view pixel images of microplastic particles in the air that we breathe too … truly millions of ghostly particles in our everyday lives.