{"id":108106,"date":"2025-08-25T05:05:08","date_gmt":"2025-08-25T05:05:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/108106\/"},"modified":"2025-08-25T05:05:08","modified_gmt":"2025-08-25T05:05:08","slug":"just-because-you-can-not-see-it-does-not-mean-it-is-not-there","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/108106\/","title":{"rendered":"‘Just because you can not see [it] does not mean it is not there’"},"content":{"rendered":"

Against the backdrop of a “dangerously hot<\/a>” July and August, experts in East Texas warned of an insidious heat-related risk lurking in a seemingly benign item, KLTV<\/a> reports.<\/p>\n

What’s happening?<\/p>\n

AccuWeather<\/a> indicated portions of East Texas were under a Heat Advisory lasting from Aug. 14 until Aug. 20.<\/p>\n

On Tuesday, temperatures approached three digits<\/a>, with heat index values anticipated to climb as high as 110 degrees.<\/p>\n

A form of extreme weather, Ready.gov<\/a> defined extreme heat as “a period of high heat and humidity with temperatures above 90 degrees for at least two to three days.”<\/p>\n

Meteorologists and public health experts advise certain measures when a Heat Advisory is in effect: avoiding unnecessary exertion and the sun, staying in an air-conditioned environment, and drinking “plenty of fluids” to prevent heat-related illness.<\/p>\n

Unfortunately, while hydration is critically important when temperatures skyrocket, experts warned East Texans of a related and perhaps lesser-known danger.<\/p>\n

Bryan Tuten, an assistant professor of chemistry at the University of Texas at Tyler, spoke to KLTV to warn East Texas residents about water bottles and microplastic ingestion.<\/p>\n

Tuten likened the polymer plastic from which water bottles are manufactured to strands of spaghetti, in the way the latter forms a difficult-to-separate clump when cold. Hot pasta is easier to separate, he explained, and plastic breaks down in much the same fashion.<\/p>\n

At around 75 degrees, plastic water bottles don’t break down all that much. However, people often transport and store water bottles in their cars<\/a>, where ambient temperatures can soar.<\/p>\n

“The crucial temperature that that starts to happen in is around 140 to 170\u00b0F, which is very normal to get to inside of a hot car in the summertime. It’s at that point that it starts to become more likely that you’re going to pull particles or chemicals into your water,” Tuten said.<\/p>\n

Why is that concerning?<\/p>\n

Microplastics are particles of plastic smaller than 5 millimeters in size \u2014 and while their effects have yet to be fully quantified, a growing body of evidence links them to a number of adverse health impacts.<\/p>\n

Their small size allows microplastics to penetrate virtually every part of the human body, as well as soil, the ocean, rivers, and remote areas like Antarctica.<\/p>\n

Ongoing research identified potential reproductive impacts, vascular damage, and cancer linked to exposure to microplastics.<\/p>\n

Dr. Wei-Chin Ho, an assistant professor of biology at UT Tyler, cautioned East Texans about a higher risk of microbial contamination in extreme heat. While his warning concerned bacteria, it aligned well with what Tuten discussed.<\/p>\n

“Just because you can not see [it] does not mean it is not there,” Ho said.<\/p>\n

What can be done about it?<\/p>\n

Staying aware<\/a> of environmental risks like microplastics is important as scientific understanding of the issue evolves.<\/p>\n

It’s difficult to avoid plastic entirely<\/a>, but using less plastic<\/a> \u2014 particularly for personal water bottles and tumblers \u2014 is a great way to reduce direct exposure to microplastics.<\/p>\n

Join our free newsletter<\/a> for weekly updates on the latest innovations improving our lives and shaping our future, and don’t miss this cool list<\/a> of easy ways to help yourself while helping the planet.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Against the backdrop of a “dangerously hot” July and August, experts in East Texas warned of an insidious…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":108107,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[71152,71149,97,51901,71151,71146,71150,71148,71147],"class_list":["post-108106","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-health","tag-bryan-tuten","tag-east-texas","tag-health","tag-heat-advisory","tag-kltv","tag-plastic-water-bottles","tag-polymer-plastic","tag-public-health-experts","tag-water-bottles"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/108106","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=108106"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/108106\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/108107"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=108106"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=108106"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=108106"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}