Study: Water Makes Common Plastics Produce Reactive Chemicals

What BBN said about it

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   Hank Ledger · Lead AnchorSix common plastics make reactive chemicals when they sit in water, according to a new study in Nature from researchers at Columbia and Berkeley, and the South China Morning Post reports that those chemicals damaged red blood cells and proteins in the lab.

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   Hank Ledger · Lead AnchorFolks, for decades the working assumption was that plastic in water is inert. Inert. That means nothing happens. They wrote that down.

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   Hank Ledger · Lead AnchorPoint one. The researchers dropped a vial of polystyrene powder in water, and over ten days it bled its dye until it was nearly colorless.

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   Hank Ledger · Lead AnchorTen days of nothing happening.

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   Hank Ledger · Lead AnchorPoint two. They ran the same test in methanol, ethanol, acetonitrile and DMF, and got nothing comparable. Water was the missing ingredient. Water.

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   Hank Ledger · Lead AnchorThe thing we put in the plastic bottle.

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   Hank Ledger · Lead AnchorPoint three. In mouse cells, red blood cells turned into fragmented, helmet-like shapes after contact with polystyrene particles, and hemoglobin leaked out. Helmets.

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   Hank Ledger · Lead AnchorThe cells needed helmets.

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   Hank Ledger · Lead AnchorNow, the authors are clear that this does not prove these reactions cause disease in people. All the harm was seen in the lab.

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    Hank Ledger · Lead AnchorI'm telling you that because it's true, and you should hear it.

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    Hank Ledger · Lead AnchorBut if you're the one who drinks water, and I assume that's most of you, you don't care whether it's proven yet.

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    Hank Ledger · Lead AnchorYou care who spent decades saying nothing happens.

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    Hank Ledger · Lead AnchorWater-repellent plastics like polypropylene and polyethylene made the most reactive chemicals, according to one summary.

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    Hank Ledger · Lead AnchorThe plastic that hates water reacts hardest to it. Fine. Everybody has a history.

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    Hank Ledger · Lead AnchorDecades in water, called inert. Somebody wrote nothing happens, and somebody stamped it.