Plastic is one of the most consequential inventions in human history, and with it came the promise of a brighter future. Composites made cars safer, planes became lighter and different forms of plastic have touched every aspect of our lives from food to entertainment. Plastics’ ubiquity was, however, a double edged sword. Thanks to the notion it was a disposable material, plastic started to fill up every corner of landfills, garbage cans and eventually the sides of highways. Soon enough the over use of plastic led to it finding its way into our oceans and lakes, where the currents eroded these materials to the point that they could fit through the eye of a hypodermic needle. These fine particles are called microplastics.

Microplastics by definition are pieces of plastic no larger than 5 millimeters in length and have polluted nearly every inch of our planet. From the deepest parts of the oceans to the air we breathe, the microscopic menace is all but unavoidable. Due to the fact that plastic is mostly a derivative of petrochemicals, the effects of these in the human body can be mutagenic in nature potentially causing cancer and damage to DNA.

Already articles have been published recently stating that quantifiable amounts of microplastics have been found in the human bloodstream and accumulate in the parts of the body that filter blood like the liver and kidneys. And while great strides have been made in the realm of mitigating people's exposure to microplastics through water treatment and legislation limiting the use of plastics, the threat remains ever present. So what can you do to limit your exposure?

Identifying the sources through which you are exposed is the first step. Microplastics found in the environment seep their way into everything you interact with like food though the concept of biomagnification, where smaller fish eat these toxic particles and are eaten by larger fish which we eat and are then transferred to us (this applies to most animals). Microplastics find their way into the air through synthetic carpeting being agitated or clothes being worn. The most pressing and necessary to address, however, is water.

Microplastics enter our waterways through a litany of different means. They can invade through such an area as simple as clothes rubbing together in a washing machine to tires being worn down by driving and the dust washing into sewers when it rains. There are also cosmetic products that deliberately use microplastics as exfoliants that get run down drains when you shower or wash your face. The largest source is pollution. The great pacific garbage patch is an area in the pacific ocean the size of a small country where the waste of several nations accumulates and degrades and is one of the most pressing ecological disasters of our time. Ergo if you want to limit your intake of microplastics, your water supply is a good place to start.

LARQ is a company that started off with a clear vision: to provide people with sustainable access to clean drinking water. They have a line of products that include filtered water bottles and pitchers that utilize NVZI technology, used in large scale industrial operations such as oil spill clean up and waste management, to provide the user a source of not just filtered but purified water in a sleek and modern package. Alongside the physical filter some of their lineup of products utilize their patented UV-C technology which serves to eradicate bio contaminants that could otherwise be harmful to the human body and clean the water bottle passively.

Not only can you guard yourself from the threat of microplastics by buying a filtered water bottle you can also cut down on your dependence on plastic bottles which are a huge contributor to the issue of plastic pollution in our water supply. It was estimated that in 2017 Americans bought over 50 million plastic bottles in a trend that showed no chance of slowing down. The LARQ lineup or water bottles are made of high quality metal that come in either insulated or uninsulated versions that are sure to stand up to whatever the test of time has in store for them.

If you're curious about how you can reduce your plastic consumption while simultaneously engaging in harm reduction when it comes to microplastics you should check out LARQ's website today. After all, it's up to us to be effective stewards of our body and our planet.