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Americans May Be Ingesting Thousands of Microplastics Every Year

smithsonianmag.com

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Re: Americans May Be Ingesting Thousands of Microplastics Every Year

#71

Post by 7952 »

userbinator wrote: post #33
jdietrich wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>So how big are these really and what are they doing to me? According to the paper, a) they're mostly microscopic pieces of lint from synthetic textiles and b) we don't know. Given the amount of research that has looked for health harms related to plastics exposure, I operate on the assumption that if it was a big deal, we would have found something by now. https://pubs.acs.org/doi/abs/10.1021/acs.est.9b01517

and b) we don't know If the claims of consumption are true, then people have been ingesting plastics for a long time and there have been no observed ill effects attributable to it, and I'd say it's more like "we have plenty of evidence that it's not really harmful" than "we don't know" --- but of course, the latter makes for more sensational reporting and fearmongering... This somewhat reminds me of the paranoia surr…

Just because we can't measure an effect, it doesn't mean that one doesn't exist. This seems like a really unscientific thing to say. But remember that the world is not a lab where you can exactly control conditions. There is no control group, and the null hypothesis cannot be proven. But we still have to deal with that complex world and make choices.

To believe that a novel substance is benign until proven otherwise is just a form of bias. There is no objective reason why a substance should be innocent until proven guilty. We just have to adopt that policy out of practicality!

Re: Americans May Be Ingesting Thousands of Microplastics Every Year

#72

Post by bencollier49 »

chrisco255 wrote: post #15
bencollier49 wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We have milk delivered in glass bottles on our doorstep each morning. No difficulties.

They still do this in some cities?

We're in the UK. It's available in most towns.

Re: Americans May Be Ingesting Thousands of Microplastics Every Year

#73

Post by aliteralrobot »

chrisco255 wrote: post #57
strainer wrote: post #40

Sooner or later it is likely that microbes which can digest plastics but are currently extremely rare, will multiply, become common and evolve since we are making plastic pollution increasingly common throughout soils and seas. What will be the timescale and effect of a new category of microbes on earthly micro-flora? In soils, in foodchains and within our own guts ? This uncertainty presents an unpredictable biohaza…

Plastics are not so abundant in the oceans or soils to support some kind of biological takeover, assuming such microbes could evolve. This is sensationalist speculation. https://vinylverified.com/blog/2019/5/17/vinyl-verified-resp...

This article doesn’t provide evidence for your claim that plastics are not so abundant in the oceans, it only points out that a specific study that relied on a false premise (that PVC is a high percentage or is well-represented in ocean plastics) is flawed. It makes almost no mention of the abundance of actual ocean plastics.

Did you link the wrong article or something?

Re: Americans May Be Ingesting Thousands of Microplastics Every Year

#74

Post by sametmax »

dahfizz wrote: post #13

Do we know much about the impact this has on our bodies? This is certainly something to be concerned about, but without that context it's hard to know what this really means. The article says a "microplastic particle" is any peice of plastic smaller than 5mm. That's bigger than some pills - I would definitely notice chewing on something that size. So how big are these really and what are they doing to me? For referen…

The problem with this is that it could take decades to become dangerous. Maybe accumulation is a factor. Maybe interaction with other things is.

It's hard to assess, and I'd find it saner to assume ingesting regularly inorganic synthetic materials our body did't evolve with to be risky and take measure before we know for sure.

Even if it's just because of intertia: it took almost a century between knowing that asbestos was dangerous and ban. So let's not wait.

Re: Americans May Be Ingesting Thousands of Microplastics Every Year

#76

Post by ddebernardy »

chrisco255 wrote: post #56
hammock wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

BPA is not used to make plastics more flexible. It is commonly used in all sorts of places though. Phthalates are commonly used to make plastics more flexible. They are also estrogenic. Parabens, PCBs, and pesticides are all other common entrants into the body with estrogenic effects. ( Reduced sperm count and sperm quality)

Do you have sources?

You'll find some good links here:

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2019/may/22/toxic-chemic...

The entire series is a good read, too:

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/series/toxic-america

Re: Americans May Be Ingesting Thousands of Microplastics Every Year

#78

Post by Bradlinc »

devoply wrote: post #53
NikolaeVarius wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Glass is heavy as shit and makes transportation require more energy.

Yet glass bottles are used everywhere from beer, wine, jellies, jams, etc. etc. Transportation cost is not much of a real issue.

I disagree. Shipping for beer can be up to 20% of the cost depending on where it is coming from. One of the main reasons for the increase in cans for American craft brewers is that the freight savings (both in and out of the brewery) increases profits in a significant manor.

Re: Americans May Be Ingesting Thousands of Microplastics Every Year

#79

Post by nikanj »

remarkEon wrote: post #30

Somewhat unrelated, but I really wish we could find a way to not be so reliant on plastics. I try to shop at local farmers markets (I'm willing to pay a small premium for knowing exactly where my food is coming from), and even in those cases the guy behind the table reflexively reaches for a plastic bag nearly every time. I always bring my own canvas bags or a backpack, but this has become so culturally ingrained in…

Sadly, sellers have realized said small premium can extracted from buyers without actually producing food locally https://www.cbc.ca/news/business/farmers-markets-lies-market...

Re: Americans May Be Ingesting Thousands of Microplastics Every Year

#80

Post by smsm42 »

idDriven wrote: post #43
dahfizz wrote: post #13

Do we know much about the impact this has on our bodies? This is certainly something to be concerned about, but without that context it's hard to know what this really means. The article says a "microplastic particle" is any peice of plastic smaller than 5mm. That's bigger than some pills - I would definitely notice chewing on something that size. So how big are these really and what are they doing to me? For referen…

> The article says a "microplastic particle" is any peice of plastic smaller than 5mm I double checked the article and you are right, this is why the use of the apothocary symbols are not used in medicine any more it should be "5 and 20 μm polystyrene micro-particles elicited somewhat similar pathological and physiological changes in mice. These, particularly the 5 μm micro-particles, could be detected in histologica…

> Mice are not human but as this is a basic physiology issue it is very highly likely that they also bioaccumulate in humans

That would be rather easy to check - take a bunch of dead humans who likely consumed a lot of bottled water (i.e. pretty much any urban dweller) and check them for microplastics in certain organs. Has this kind of research already been done and if not, why not?

Also, "piece smaller than 5mm" can be a huge 4mm chunk of plastic or one molecule. Depending on that, the average of 325 particles per liter could be enormous or completely insignificant.

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