Earlier quoted context omitted.
What consumers think of as normal "paper" tea bags release 11.6 billion “microplastics” and 3.1 billion “nanoplastics” into each cup. It's not paper.
That's 11603.1 whole plastics!
Underrated comment.
Sperm counts worldwide are plummeting faster than we thought
711–720 of 1001 posts
Re: Sperm counts worldwide are plummeting faster than we thought
#712Earlier quoted context omitted.
Comments like this from commenters like this are why I love HN. Does BPA-free plastic improve anything? What about containers of non-prepared food? I can see not eating directly from any, but I think it's pretty hard in the developed world to rid ourselves of plastics entirely in the storage of foodstuffs. Also, do we know whether the changes in sperm quality you mention affect congenital childhood maladies? (I reali…
BPA is merely one of many endocrine disrupting chemicals found in plastics. Oftentimes BPA is replaced by BPS or BPF to get that coveted "BPA-free!" label, ignoring the fact that the replacements are JUST AS BAD^1. It's a minefield. Silicone tends to not have endocrine disruptors because it doesn't need plasticizers. [1]: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4492270/
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Re: Sperm counts worldwide are plummeting faster than we thought
#713Earlier quoted context omitted.
Doesn't the existence of anorexia (which appears to be socially transmissible) and the fact that people who take up hobbies like bodybuilding are able to manage their fat levels well suggest that environmental contaminants aren't the whole story? The staple bodybuilding foods are rice and chicken breast. That's about as industrialized as you can get. If there were people getting fat eating broccoli, potatoes, chicken…
> Doesn't the existence of anorexia (which appears to be socially transmissible) and the fact that people who take up hobbies like bodybuilding are able to manage their fat levels well suggest that environmental contaminants aren't the whole story? No? Genetics is the best predictor of obesity, but as with drugs any contaminant would have varying degrees of effect on the population, including sometimes a paradoxical…
Paradoxical effects are rare and tend to happen only with psychoactive medications. I see very little evidence for paradoxical effects playing a major role, but obviously it can't be ruled out entirely. I don't find paradoxical effects a convincing explanation for anorexia because of how people develop anorexia. You can become anorexic merely by changing your social circle or even your desired social circle, so why would a paradoxical effect occur in that situation when presumably the environment hasn't changed in terms of chemical consumption.
> Why has the percentage of the population that is obese increasing?
Most likely explanation is that they are eating foods that aren't satiating and that are high calorie, foods that weren't common in the past. Like I said earlier, people who are eating simple foods like the ones I listed don't get fat. Genetics seems to play a role in that some people can eat junk and feel full but most can't.
Re: Sperm counts worldwide are plummeting faster than we thought
#714Whenever I read about things like decreasing sperm counts or increases in cancer I always think of the same phrase, "Everything is chemicals." It just really doesn't surprise me knowing how little evaluation is done on chemicals and materials throughout the supply chain. I believe the period from 1900 to around 2100 will be looked at as this horrible era where we filled our own ecosystem with an almost unimaginable a…
> Truth is, particularly the US, the only thing we really test consumer products for is lead and mercury.
We don't even do that very well, for example see all the heavy metals that have been allowed (and are still allowed) in baby food.
Re: Sperm counts worldwide are plummeting faster than we thought
#715I did my Master Degree in Organic Chemistry where we tried to develop a male contraceptive pill. I spend a lot of time studying sperm so here is a short list of thing to avoid regarding sperm quality (not ranked): 1. Eating and drinking from plastics (This includes aluminum cans which are plastic lined) [a] 2. Heating food in ANY type of plastic [a] 3. Caffein intake [b] 4. Sugar intake [c] 5. NOT exercising regularl…
Ah yes, that study of 99 (predominantly overweight) men from an infertility clinic that definitely shows soy affects sperm count. As far as I'm aware the evidence just isn't there with respect to soy and cherry picking the single study that shows some potential link is just helping fuel a dietary myth, would be my view.
Perhaps the correlation is the other way around. Men with less testosterone (and therefore a lower sperm count) consume more products with soy, which is common in a vegan diet.
Not saying this is the case, just pointing out where this could be coming from.
Re: Sperm counts worldwide are plummeting faster than we thought
#716Earlier quoted context omitted.
> corporate cultures that, in my experience, don't really know what to do with young parents What do they not know? I’ve been mostly treated fairly (not exactly a young parent though).
I'll share an experience. My (now) wife and I got pregnant in our senior year of college. That summer I had the good fortune to land my first software dev internship. At the end of the summer, I was to be given an offer letter to come on as a full time employee after I finished school. I asked in that meeting if I could just continue to work and was told "uh yeah, that's fine I guess". Major victory for me at the tim…
None of this is specific to being a parent, and I'm not sure being a young parent (as opposed to middle-aged or elderly) requires any sort of special consideration.
Had you started at Accenture it wouldn't have been any worse, but you probably would not have gone weeks (months?) as a full-time unsalaried employee with no PTO.
Re: Sperm counts worldwide are plummeting faster than we thought
#717Re: Sperm counts worldwide are plummeting faster than we thought
#718I did my Master Degree in Organic Chemistry where we tried to develop a male contraceptive pill. I spend a lot of time studying sperm so here is a short list of thing to avoid regarding sperm quality (not ranked): 1. Eating and drinking from plastics (This includes aluminum cans which are plastic lined) [a] 2. Heating food in ANY type of plastic [a] 3. Caffein intake [b] 4. Sugar intake [c] 5. NOT exercising regularl…
Let's not forget how many people were born thanks to alcohol
Alcohol now working overtime to somewhat re-address the balance.
Re: Sperm counts worldwide are plummeting faster than we thought
#719Re: Sperm counts worldwide are plummeting faster than we thought
#720I did my Master Degree in Organic Chemistry where we tried to develop a male contraceptive pill. I spend a lot of time studying sperm so here is a short list of thing to avoid regarding sperm quality (not ranked): 1. Eating and drinking from plastics (This includes aluminum cans which are plastic lined) [a] 2. Heating food in ANY type of plastic [a] 3. Caffein intake [b] 4. Sugar intake [c] 5. NOT exercising regularl…
Amazing! Thanks for the well-researched info. I did not know aluminum cans were lined. I thought the oxide layer is stable enough.
I think they just spray them with a thin layer of epoxy, otherwise certain drinks get a metallic taste?