Disclaimer: I’m not a medical professional or scientist. But, for my own personal health, I’ve done around 40 hours of research on this topic—watching videos by experts, listening to podcasts, and reading articles and scientific journals.

What’s the danger here?

In the future, we might look back on microplastics like our current generation does lead exposure—as in, the substance was all around us, but we didn’t realize until much later how horrible it was for our health.

Even worse, the cutting-edge concern here is actually nanoplastics—even smaller particles that our instruments haven’t been sensitive enough to measure until recently. As microplastics rub together, they break down into nanoplastics.

Turns out, these tiny particles are in the water we drink, the air we breathe, and even the clothes we wear.

Emerging research is finding potential links to everything from chronic inflammation, to lung damage, to reproductive health disorders, to neurodegeneration.

In this post, I’ll explore what we can do about it.

I’m not going to spend a lot of time here explaining why microplastics and nanoplastics are dangerous.

If you’re not already sold on that, I recommend listening to this podcast by cell biologist and science educator Dr. Rhonda Patrick. (No need to listen to the whole thing—I imagine the first 10-15 minutes should be enough to convince you.)

Again, this is cutting-edge research, so the FDA is still claiming that microplastics in food are fine for us. But I’m seeing more and more scientists like Dr. Patrick sounding the alarm here, so I’ve begun taking it quite seriously.

Here are some quick highlights from Dr. Rhonda Patrick:

“Every week, you’re consuming the equivalent of a credit card in plastic without even realizing it.”
“Microplastics are laced with toxic chemicals like BPA, BPS, and phthalates… These chemicals are notorious for disrupting hormones, altering metabolism, and increasing the risk of everything from infertility to heart disease.”
“We consume them daily through bottled water, packaged foods, and even fresh produce, while breathing in plastic particles from urban air. But they don’t just leave—they accumulate in critical organs, from the lungs to the brain.“
“Consuming food or drinks heated in plastic increases BPA exposure up to 55x.”
“The brain may bioaccumulate plastic at 10-20x the rate of other organs.”
“There’s a strong correlation between brain microplastic levels & neurodegenerative disease.“

So, what can we do about this?

Here are her top recommendations:

Avoid ever heating plastic (e.g., switch to glass containers, especially for the microwave), and try to avoid plastic in general for storing food, etc.
Avoid bottled water. And, get a reverse osmosis water filter for your home since one of the biggest sources of microplastics is unfortunately now tap water (see below for my recommendations).
Run a HEPA air filter at home (microplastics often end up in dust in the home, and they can get in the air from clothing, blankets, and other items made of synthetic fabrics). This is the one I use. You might also consider getting a HEPA filter for your vacuum if it supports that.
As much as possible, avoid synthetic fabrics (e.g., polyester). You won’t take in microplastics through the skin, but the tiny fibers get rubbed off and enter the air, so the danger here is breathing them in.
Take a sulforaphane supplement to flush “forever chemicals” (like BPA and microplastics) out of your body (see recommendations below).

More harmful items to watch out for:

Here are some additional recommendations from my own research on surprising sources of significant microplastics, PFAs (“forever chemicals” that break down very slowly in the body) and bisphenols (harmful endocrine disruptors like BPA, BPB, and BPS):

Many tea bags (the best solution might be to switch to loose-leaf tea)
Sea salt (I did some research and chose this one to use in my kitchen since it’s mined from a source without contaminants)
Fast food wrappers (use foil or paper bags instead if you can)
Personal care products with microbeads, like exfoliators or toothpaste (use natural products instead, or at least avoid things advertised as having microbeads)
Microwave popcorn bags (use a metal pot or air popper instead)
Plastic cutting boards and cooking utensils (use wood ones instead)
Rain water (filter it before drinking)
Most canned food and frozen food (transfer the frozen food to a bowl before microwaving, and look for BPA-free cans or food sold in glass jars)
Store receipts (amazingly, the BPA from these is actually absorbed into the skin far more easily if you spray hand sanitizer or touch them with lotion or wet hands, so try to just decline paper receipts if possible)
To look up specific products, check out PlasticList.org.

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Now, I’m going to dig into the two parts of Rhonda’s list of recommendations that I spent a lot of time researching: the ideal water filter and the ideal sulforaphane supplement.

The best water filters for filtering microplastics and nanoplastics

Disclaimer: I was doing the water filter research for myself, so my findings apply to my specific situation: Living in a major city with high-quality municipal water that has a good flow rate. If you’re in a city with less good water or are using well water, etc., different systems might be better for your needs.

I didn’t write this guide to make any money, so I don’t have any special links or affiliate codes to give you. But, if you search around online (like here and here), you’ll find codes for most of the systems below to get sizeable discounts (most of the prices I listed below factor in the codes commonly given in water filter reviews).

Glossary of terms for the section below:

Fill rate is how quickly the drinkable water comes out.
The ratio (like 1:2) means how much water is retained as useful filtered water versus how much is discarded as waste water, which is unfortunately a natural part of how reverse osmosis filters work. In other words, this affects your water bill.
The prices I list (like $65 + $80/year) are for up-front cost + yearly-cost to replace filters.

If you want to protect yourself as best you can but can’t afford to spend too much:

LifeStraw Home Glass Pitcher

Very fast fill rate, 1:0 ratio (of drinkable water to waste water), $65 + $80/year (filter replacements)
No installation necessary (it just sits on your countertop)
Downside: Filters fewer nanoplastics (only a 0.02 micron filter, compared to 0.0001 for the reverse osmosis systems in my later recommendations)

Or, if you can afford a little more, this next one filters better than the LifeStraw and easily installs under the sink:

Waterdrop TST-UF

Very fast fill rate, 1:0 ratio, $150 + $40/year
Easy installation (connects directly to your existing faucet, so you don’t need to install a new small filter faucet like with the reverse osmosis systems)
Downside: Filters fewer nanoplastics (0.01 micron filter, so better than the LifeStraw, but less than the 0.0001 for the reverse osmosis systems in my later recommendations)

If you’re serious about your health and can afford more, but your sink doesn’t have a hole for a new small filter faucet (and you rent your home so can’t easily drill one):

This is the one I got for myself, and I love it so far (it feels like less work to empty and refill it regularly than I worried it would be):

AquaTru Carafe (glass “smart” version with alkaline mineral booster add-on)

Very fast fill rate, 2:1 ratio, $280 + $60/year ($329 for smartphone version with alkaline mineral booster)
No installation necessary (it just sits on your countertop)
Smaller, so requires frequent refills
(Sadly, I wouldn’t recommend the “smart” version so far since I haven’t been able to get it to connect to my phone. But, I’m going to contact tech support and see if I can get it fixed. It still works fine otherwise, though—I just lose the reports.)

If your sink already has a hole or you’re able to drill one, these are more convenient (since you don’t have to fill and empty them):

P.S. I suggest watching a YouTube video of what the installation is like before buying one of these. Some of them are more involved than you might think.

This is the one I’d get if I could drill a hole in my sink or had a sink with an existing hole:

Waterdrop Remineralization RO WD‑G3P600

Medium-slow fill rate, 2:1 ratio, $460 + $150/year

Or, if you can afford more, this version has a faster fill rate, even better filtering, and less wasted water:

Waterdrop Remineralization RO WD‑G3P800

Fast fill rate, 3:1 ratio, $870 + $150/year

Or, this one offers a similar level of filtration to those two, but it’s cheaper and a bit older:

Waterdrop Stainless Steel RO WD‑H9

Fast fill rate, 1:1 ratio, $279 + $150/year
Downside: Lacks real-time monitoring that displays how well it’s working and when you need to replace each filter.

Finally, if you have a lot of money to spend and want to most easily filter all the water in your house:

I haven’t looked into this very deeply since it’s outside my price range, but this is the system that Rhonda Patrick chose to get for herself (it starts at $2,227 and goes up to $9,923 for the best possible performance):

Crystal Quest Whole House Reverse Osmosis System

Bonus: If you want to filter out the bad stuff as best you can while on-the-go or out camping:

Here’s the one I got:

Grayl GeoPress Water Purifier Bottle

Or, if you’re willing to spend double and want even fewer plastics:

Grayl UltraPress Titanium Water Purifier Bottle

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P.S. The water reviewers on YouTube have all sorts of opinions, and my recommendations above take into account many videos I’ve watched and articles I’ve read. So, the following links aren’t perfect, but I like these two spreadsheets from BOS Water if you want to see more details on some of those options above:

The best supplement for flushing microplastics, PFAs, and other bad stuff out of your body

As you can imagine, it’s almost impossible to completely avoid microplastics in the world today.

If they’re in our water supply, filtering can help when it comes to drinking, but you’re still using regular tap water to wash your vegetables, shower, etc. (unless of course you get a whole-house water filtration system, which is somewhere around $5,000 or more).

I do think it’s worth it to try our best to at least reduce our exposure to these things, even if we can’t eliminate it entirely.

But, is there anything else we can do to get rid of the plastics and other harmful chemicals (like BPA) once they’re in our bodies?

This is still a cutting-edge area of research, but it seems like the most promising approach is consuming the plant compound sulforaphane. It neutralizes toxins and can flush these “forever chemicals” out of the body.

The best way to get it is by eating a lot of broccoli sprouts. But, since that’s a lot of work, the next best method is taking a supplement.

This is still such a novel thing that there aren’t a lot of clear guidelines out there yet around how much is necessary, what form, etc. So, I had to do a huge amount of research to understand which supplements are most promising to the experts, and what’s actually been tested in third-party labs.

Here’s what I found:

(The three Amazon links use my affiliate code, so I get a very small cut of the sale.)

Best, but most expensive (though they offer a year subscription that makes it more affordable): Broq (the new formulation)
Close second (Amazon offers a two-pack that makes it cheaper): Avmacol
Also great: Thorne Broccoli Seed Extract
Budget option (that might still work, but has less third-party testing than those top three): Broccomax

Hope that helps!