Drinking water quality improved by using rail?
Just when you thought it was safe to drink bottled water, a
new U.N. report raises concerns about what you may be
consuming: tiny particles of microplastics.
The
just-published 124-page report from the World Health
Organization (WHO) is the first major international study to
examine the potential human health risks caused by exposure
to microplastics in drinking water — and it found there
are more microplastics present in bottled water than in tap
water.
"Every day we are ingesting tiny, often
microscopic pieces of plastic known as 'microplastics' with
our food, beverages and the air we breathe," the report
warns.
Then this prestigious Lancet report from 2017. https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lanplh/article/PIIS2542-5196(17)30121-3/fulltext
• The Lancet Planetary Health
Open Access
Published:October,
2017DOI:https://doi.org/10.1016/S2542-5196(17)30121-3
QUOTE;
“Microplastics come from many sources: synthetic clothing fibres, dust from tyres, road paints, and the breakdown of larger items.”
UNQUOTE;
Microplastic contamination seems more widespread than we perhaps knew, and they are regularly being ingested by people worldwide.
Most concerning is how little is known about the effects of microplastic consumption on human health, it is no small problem.
• We at CEAC
believe ‘this is the elephant in the room now’ as we
already know from the ‘NZ Ministry of Transport’
documented studies from the 2002 report entitled “Emission
Factors for Contaminants Released from Motor Vehicles in
NZ” Fuels and Energy Management Group December 2002.
https://www.transport.govt.nz/assets/Import/Documents/9fa2b3a10b/stormwater-emission-factors.pdf
That
report shows that tyre particulates have many toxic
chemicals that are known to be harmful to humans.
These are already found to be freely released in the tyre dust as we drive and are then washed off our roads into our drains, streams, rivers, lakes and aquifers, and finally into our drinking water, so we are part of the problem already now.
EV vehicles will still emit the same tyre dust toxins as regular gasoline vehicles do.
The new scientific German report
https://www.sott.net/article/418585-Plastic-particles-falling-out-of-sky-with-snow-in-the-Arctic
‘Raining
plastic’ – QUOTE “fragments of rubber tyres”,
Tyre dust pollution was found by lead scientist, Dr Melanie Bergmann in the laboratory at Germany's Alfred Wegener Institute in Bremerhaven discovered far more contaminating particles than they'd expected.
This clearly shows the gravity of the problems we have with too many oil based synthetic tyres used on our roads now.
These are important issues’ - to serious to ignore now.
We need to reduce truck freight now, and use at least half freight movement onto rail, as no tyres are used on rail.
CEAC is advocating for this Government to use rail to lower freight truck tyre emissions for climate change and our NZ water quality.
Secretary.
Citizens Environmental Advocacy
Centre.