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But is it? How confident are you that this is your greatest exposure? Odds are there is something else in your life at least 100x as bad. And what does it mean that cellulose, a naturally occurring compound, releases 15x more microplastics than nylon? Or does iy? This study didn’t measure nanoplastics.

That’s what a lack of context does. No harm in just avoiding anything any study has found to be potentially harmful (especially tea bags, which are a crime against good tea and easily replaced). But… it’s impossible to know if this is the equivalent of stopping smoking, or of brushing teeth three times a day instead of two.



how do we find the 100x as bad thing if we do not do research like this. The authors did not write this to provide you with a guide for life, they are instead trying to increase our collective knowledge. I wonder sometimes if folks understand how science works.


>they are instead trying to increase our collective knowledge

I'm not sure that's even clear since they seem to be conflating cellulose with microplastics.


i believe the bags are made from a mix of cellulose and plastic


That seems like something research could look at.

The problem is context. Lack of it. Good research contextualizes its findings.


context is audience dependent.


Have to start somewhere with avoiding plastics. This is as good a place to start as any other.


I think we're simply responding to the list the OP gave — which many of us do not do.




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