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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

#311

Post by fnord77 »

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…

the rise in obesity correlates to the rise of HFCS in food and also the "war on fats" in diets around the 80s

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

#312

Post by [deleted] »

avgcorrection wrote: post #282
saberience wrote: post #225

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Obesity is caused by eating too much. If you don’t eat then you won’t gain weight, there is no subverting the laws of thermodynamics. It sounds callous but if you go to Africa or visit a prisoner of war camp you won’t find many fat people and so blaming chemicals in America for so many fat people doesn’t make much sense to me.

The tunnel-vision on this subject is truly astounding. I can't think of any subject that is treated in the same way. Say that someone was failing at university because they have no motivation. And they have no motivation because they have depression. Then a vocal minority would always butt in with the following truism: - Failing university courses is caused by not studying enough. There is no subverting the fact that…

[deleted]

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

#313

Post by ethbr1 »

avgcorrection wrote: post #282
saberience wrote: post #225

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Obesity is caused by eating too much. If you don’t eat then you won’t gain weight, there is no subverting the laws of thermodynamics. It sounds callous but if you go to Africa or visit a prisoner of war camp you won’t find many fat people and so blaming chemicals in America for so many fat people doesn’t make much sense to me.

The tunnel-vision on this subject is truly astounding. I can't think of any subject that is treated in the same way. Say that someone was failing at university because they have no motivation. And they have no motivation because they have depression. Then a vocal minority would always butt in with the following truism: - Failing university courses is caused by not studying enough. There is no subverting the fact that…

As someone who struggled with depression at university, I'd say that's the only useful advice.

"I am failing because I am not studying enough."

Granted, I could introspect on what was preventing me from studying, leverage additional college resources, align to my learning styles, etc.

But until I accepted the above as an honest objective truth, and a path to change, I wasn't able to be successful.

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

#314

Post by thworp »

trgn wrote: post #217
thworp wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Mostly to prevent dust and other dirt accumulating before evrything goes into the final packaging.

I believe you. Or, plastic is essentially worthless, so it just gets applied willy-nilly. As if, plastic, _because_ it is cheap and easy to produce, therefore it must be everywhere. Go shopping, here's your free plastic bag, well, hell no, double bagged, because plastic is flimsy and crap quality (you didn't even ask, but force of habit, shrug). Package a thing, wrap it in plastic on the outside and the inside! And m…

If you were just talking about plastic packaging you have a point. By weight that is a small percentage of plastics though, which is incidentally why it is so cheap.

For other applications plastics are an outright miracle material though. Imagine if all drinks came in glass bottles; all cases and other structural parts were made of metal or wood; all elastic members were made of rubber or treated wood. The added need for shipping alone would probably outweigh the CO2 impact from current plastics production. As it is you get plastics almost for free while refining oil. Not to mention the insane demand there would be for metals, wood and rubber.

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

#315

Post by fredrikholm »

ethanbond wrote: post #278
fredrikholm wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And correlated with decreased sperm quality and count. Considering the sheer amount of bad health outcomes that are also associated with obesity in general, it's not surprising that it also affects fertility. Question then becomes, if you adjust for obesity, how much has male fertility changed since 80 years ago?

We have lab data showing that microplastics also disrupt metabolisms. So this is not quite the escape hatch we might wish it was: we have good reason to suspect that microplastics are also contributing to obesity. (Of course this doesn't fully remove our extremely sedentary lifestyle and highly unnatural food supply either)

Oh most definitely; I rather meant that it would be interesting to see just how much of a contributing factor global obesity rates have in this area.

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

#316

Post by mc32 »

gettodachoppa wrote: post #292
mc32 wrote: post #204

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This the one area the administration should go after instead of alcohol or whatever else they think they’re doing. By addressing obesity, making it uncool, taxing the living daylights out of sugary additives, etc they would save more lives than the lives combined in all their other feel-good, virtue signaling efforts[1]they sound nice and all but in thd end this effort would actually save a many more lives. [1]gas st…

Do you see an administration going after obesity the way they did tobacco? (negative ads, advertising bans, etc) Unlike smoking, half the class is already fat. NGOs and media would frame it as a psychological harm to those children, fat-shaming, or who knows what else. It would be a political landmine.

Unfortunately, I don't. They seem to baby obesity, including the media where obese people like Lizzo and others are celebrated for being unapologetically fat. I understand bulimia is an issue too and we don't want kids especially to think they need to be waifs, but now this sentiment pendulum has swung way too far to the other side and they accommodate obesity in every which way. The only fat people the media seem okay to chastise are Trump and I think maybe Chris Christie & very few others?

No, this should be confronted as _the_ health threat of the next 20 - 30 years. It's more consequential than anything else, Health-wise, productivity-wise, medical costs, quality of life --All these shoppers in their electric 4-wheeled scooters. It's insane that this is not a declared crisis.

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

#317

Post by tarsinge »

wickedsight wrote: post #267
saberience wrote: post #225

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Obesity is caused by eating too much. If you don’t eat then you won’t gain weight, there is no subverting the laws of thermodynamics. It sounds callous but if you go to Africa or visit a prisoner of war camp you won’t find many fat people and so blaming chemicals in America for so many fat people doesn’t make much sense to me.

Your argument is that forcing people to go without food causes them to lose weight, which is impossible to deny. You argument says nothing about what causes people to gain weight, however. Just look up 'hormonal weight gain' to see that it isn't just about eating less. Then look at research into the influence of chemicals/micro plastics on those hormones. Yes, all calories have to go in through the mouth. How those c…

I visited the US a few years ago and I was shocked how much calories were packed in random foods. Some desserts/cakes alone were above 1000kcal. Basically in the US I had to be very careful and calorie counting and I got the impression if you eat randomly you'll end up with a very high calorie intake (typically above 3000 per day), whereas this is usually less true in Europe (but it's getting less true every year) and you might end up just a bit overweight instead of obese by eating randomly.

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

#318

Post by bee_rider »

throwawayfear wrote: post #268
bee_rider wrote: post #220

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is a canteen the same thing as a cafeteria? Lots of Americans have their lunch at a work cafeteria as well. A big lunch and a small dinner would probably be a good change for lots of us.

It’s just a weasel wording to say “lots.” How many and where did you get your number from? How many of those are using a designated sitting area to eat food they brought from home? And if you think something is a good change, make it for yourself and don’t impose it on someone else. Vast majority of people given the choice will pick independence and purchasing/making their own food whenever they want, not being depen…

I pulled “lots” out of my ass, based on having been to a couple different campuses. The fuzziness of “lots” accurately represents the level of certainty (low) which is appropriate for chit-chat about the existence of cafeterias. Chill out, nobody is actually going to ban cooking at home.

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

#319

Post by BaseballPhysics »

DrThunder wrote: post #179
njovin wrote: post #22

I'm still shocked that there hasn't been more of a regulatory push to eliminate single-use plastics. In the US the closest we've gotten is banning plastic straws and charging for plastic carry bags. Everything I've read about plastic recycling points to it being ineffective and requiring massive amounts of fossil fuel to move the waste around the globe, often with much of it just getting burned or dumped into the env…

You have to have a good alternative first. Paper items sprayed with harmful chemicals is not a good replacement. https://fortune.com/well/2023/08/24/paper-straws-harmful-for...

No you don't. A ban forces industries to create alternatives. Otherwise they won't bother. You just schedule a phased elimination over time so those alternatives can get developed. That's precisely how the Montreal Protocol banned CFCs and protected the ozone layer:

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Montreal_Protocol

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

#320

Post by gregwithtwogs »

drewcon wrote: post #178
Justsignedup wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The problem is plastic particles getting into food. And that comes from things like heating up in plastic, storing things in plastic. Non single use plastics are a major problem. That's the thing. Plastic is modern lead. It's easily moldable, but causes subtle health problems.

Citation needed. These comments read like Reddit/TikTok. Lots of frantic fearful hand waving, not a lot of evidence presented.

Heating up plastics is thought to release microplastics but I've not seen much solid research on it either.

According to the European Parliament, ~63% of microplastics come from laundering synthetic clothes and car tires [1].

1. https://www.europarl.europa.eu/news/en/headlines/society/201...

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