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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

#181

Post by SubiculumCode »

bedhead wrote: post #160
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]

Out of sight out of mind. humans rarely react to anything unless they see it. If microplastics caused us to bleed out our eyeballs, things would change quick.

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

#182

Post by wiradikusuma »

I live in a country where, despite 70% water (I know, seawater) and lots of rainforests, most urban people drink bottled water (single-use and refills). Talk about selling ice to Eskimos. Probably because the ice outside is polluted, and it's easier to buy instead of fixing the root cause.

Anyway, ignoring the effect on nature since we clearly don't care about it, how damaging would the effect be to people who consume water that way, daily?

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

#183

Post by bhouston »

usuallyalurker wrote: post #175
bhouston wrote: post #90

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

Plastic food containers aren't even close to being the largest source of microplastics. Synthetic fibres in clothing (like that cotton-poly blend shirt you're most likely wearing) and motor vehicle tyres are some of the bigger sources. These both also release particles directly into the atmosphere allowing them to get absolutely everywhere, unlike plastic in landfills that probably has a harder time escaping into the…

> Plastic food containers aren't even close to being the largest source of microplastics.

Can you give me some citations? I know that microwaving plastic containers is about the worst thing you can do with regards to microplastics, because it releases tons of them right into your food:

https://www.wired.com/story/for-the-love-of-god-stop-microwa...

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

#184

Post by Rettardo »

TexanFeller wrote: post #40
karol wrote: post #2

I am surprised there's no mention of male fertility. It's a very viable hypothesis in my opinion.

Also the rising prevalence of trans. Feeling like the other sex might be related to disruption of one's normal sex hormone profile.

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

#185

Post by oarfish »

rthomas6 wrote: post #131
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…

Also the metabolic syndrome/obesity epidemic. 40% of US adults have obesity. By 2030 about half of US adults will, and in 29 states more than half of adults will be obese. We see obesity becoming increasingly normalized. People feel powerless to stop it and that we should just accept it. It feels to me like there is something besides diet changes happening to us. That's part of it, but I wonder if microplastics or so…

> It feels to me like there is something besides diet changes happening to us.

Well sure, obesity is a result of a lot of factors, some genetic, but a lot of it is the food environment surrounding people. The lack of easy access to healthy foods or education on how to buy and prepare them, plus economic pressures all play into this.

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

#186

Post by tuukkah »

joncrocks wrote: post #141
tuukkah wrote: post #103

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

Yes, it might. I think the point the grandparent comment was making was that plastic rubbish in parks most likely will not end up in the oceans. I think the most common sources are: * Plastic netting * Plastics from countries without any/lacking waste infrastructure

Well, plastics that end up in the environment will degrade by the elements into microplastics, and rainwater will carry them to the oceans (or salt lakes, but I know none in Germany).

There are differences in statistics between EU countries, they might tell something interesting.

EDIT: "considered to be at risk of missing one or more material-specific targets, with plastic being the most critical material:

Plastics: Austria, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Denmark, Finland, France, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Luxembourg, Malta, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia and Spain" https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=COM%3A20...

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

#187

Post by STRML »

dwighttk wrote: post #110
ethanbond wrote: post #82

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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)

Does lead exposure have a "horrifying" story? It has measurable effects over years and decades, but very little acute effect.

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

#188

Post by addcommitpush »

tmikaeld wrote: post #124
bhouston wrote: post #90

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

Considering the alternatives are metal and glass, I'd assume that the cost difference would be exponential, especially if the most common alternative is banned and transport will be much heavier.

Well then there are two straightforward questions:

- are the overall costs of plastics (namely pollution and its environmental and health effects) higher than the costs of banning plastics? Seems like a clear yes.

- what are the redistributive effects? Seems like: consumers are net winners (lower health effects, some or all financial costs of switching away from plastics are passed down to consumers through higher prices); some firms are losers (mainly those who produced plastics or used a lot of them) and some are winners (newcomers, producers of no plastics solutions, transporters).

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

#189

Post by pizzaknife »

usuallyalurker wrote: post #175
bhouston wrote: post #90

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

Plastic food containers aren't even close to being the largest source of microplastics. Synthetic fibres in clothing (like that cotton-poly blend shirt you're most likely wearing) and motor vehicle tyres are some of the bigger sources. These both also release particles directly into the atmosphere allowing them to get absolutely everywhere, unlike plastic in landfills that probably has a harder time escaping into the…

i would love a citation related to the polyblend tshirt. I absolutely love them but if its poisoning me more significantly than microwaving food in plastic containers, i will gladly return to hemp

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

#190

Post by Semaphor »

gniv wrote: post #65
Semaphor wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I mean, some things will reduce your plastic exposure without requiring measurements. Glass containers, metal bowls, no non-stick pans. That still leaves open if that results in different health outcomes, but it’s still something you can do without having high-tech measurement devices.

I'm not sure that helps. I suspect -- but I would really like to know -- that the sources of microplastics are non-obvious. I've heard of cosmetics, textiles, tea bags, foams as the most likely culprits, rather than plastic containers at room temperature, which I think are pretty stable.

> plastic containers at room temperature

Part of the issue, though. They often take food that’s above room temperature, bowls might get scratched by utensils, containers might be used in the microwave.

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