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New study finds microplastics infiltrate all systems of body, alter behaviour

sustainableplastics.com

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Re: New study finds microplastics infiltrate all systems of body, alter behaviour

#101

Post by bhouston »

hotstickyballs wrote: post #83
bhouston wrote: post #75

There are two macro population health trends that suggest we are somehow poisoning ourselves at a large scale. Most people do not relate the two, but I personally wouldn't be surprised if they have related causes. The first is the Flynn effect, which was rising IQ levels decade over decade, which halted and then reserved for most Western nations around 1990s/2000s and is now declining: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/F…

[flagged]

> Improvement of health services reduces selection pressure on reproductive fitness of population

Yes this is true. With all the C-section babies we have now, if we ever loss access to low cost surgical delivery care, we are going to have a spike in childbirth related deaths. But the male infertility crisis is rising faster than evolution can adapt here. There is something external involved.

Re: New study finds microplastics infiltrate all systems of body, alter behaviour

#102

Post by [deleted] »

superhumanuser wrote: post #59
ethanbond wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ideally, governments armed with scientists are capable of making key judgments like this one without “my child’s arm fell off” levels of apparent, individual harm.

Scientists are wrong... a lot. The harm should be obvious to the layman IMHO in order to be legislated away. Otherwise, it should be left up to personal choice.

[deleted]

Re: New study finds microplastics infiltrate all systems of body, alter behaviour

#103

Post by tuukkah »

konschubert wrote: post #67
Semaphor wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Germany and several other EU countries have deposits on plastic bottles. I’m not sure how much that helps with the microplastics issue, though.

It doesn't help with ocean pollution at all, because plastic rubbish from Germany and other EU countries wouldn't end up in the ocean either.

Don't you think the payment incentivises people to return their bottles for reuse versus leaving them lying at parks etc.?

Re: New study finds microplastics infiltrate all systems of body, alter behaviour

#105

Post by bluefirebrand »

fsflover wrote: post #44
tmountain wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I’m personally exhausted from hearing about all the terrible stuff that’s happening that I have very little to no control over. I have seen countless articles about micro plastics, forever chemicals, fresh water supplies decreasing at alarming levels, Gulf Stream collapse, etc. It’s enough to make you feel nihilistic. A big part of me feels like these are government problems, as the average person is preoccupied with…

Try to affect the political decisions? Donate to Greenpeace or similar organizations?

Donating to organizations that are anti-nuclear power seems counter productive to me.

Re: New study finds microplastics infiltrate all systems of body, alter behaviour

#107

Post by tsukikage »

hotstickyballs wrote: post #83
bhouston wrote: post #75

There are two macro population health trends that suggest we are somehow poisoning ourselves at a large scale. Most people do not relate the two, but I personally wouldn't be surprised if they have related causes. The first is the Flynn effect, which was rising IQ levels decade over decade, which halted and then reserved for most Western nations around 1990s/2000s and is now declining: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/F…

[flagged]

...we should be just fine in the (English-speaking) west then: to a first approximation, no-one can afford the US health services outside dire emergencies, while over in the UK they're busy "starving the beast" so they can privatise huge swathes of it.

Re: New study finds microplastics infiltrate all systems of body, alter behaviour

#108

Post by coffeebeqn »

bhouston wrote: post #90
spicyusername wrote: post #85

Earlier quoted context omitted.

probably fairly easy to deal with. [citation needed]

My suggestion, which isn't rocket science: Ban plastic food containers for any type of long-term storage or anything that gets heated up (and different plastics have different microplastic shedding profiles, so ban the worst first) and also ban PFAS in anything that gets close to food. It will increase costs, but the alternative is we poison ourselves, so it is sort of needed. Phase it in so that industries have time…

That’s hardly the only source. And the plastics are already in the ecosystem and circulating for a very long time even if we banned all plastics today - which we won’t and instead every year we produce and use more

Re: New study finds microplastics infiltrate all systems of body, alter behaviour

#109

Post by [deleted] »

moffkalast wrote: post #45
nonethewiser wrote: post #3

I looked for microplastic test services and it seems like they're all $500+. Wish it was something you could do at home. The local results are all that really matters. Would be interesting to compare bottled water vs. tap water/well water. I've heard bottled water tends to contain more.

Well this is something you don't really need a high tech test kit for. Take a sample of any fluid you can find anywhere, are microplastics in it? The answer is yes.

[deleted]

Re: New study finds microplastics infiltrate all systems of body, alter behaviour

#110

Post by dwighttk »

ethanbond wrote: post #82
superhumanuser wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Scientists are wrong... a lot. The harm should be obvious to the layman IMHO in order to be legislated away. Otherwise, it should be left up to personal choice.

This is an absolutely horrible heuristic. Let’s put radioactive toys, toys painted with lead, leaded gasoline, DDT, and thalidomide back on the market. None of these were “obvious to the layman.” Individual scientists are wrong a lot. Science as a process continues to be the (imperfect) reigning world champ of truth discovery, no matter what contrarianism du jour memes are spreading over the internet.

note how all of those have a horrifying story

Tell the horrifying plastic story (if there is one)

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