Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

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

sustainableplastics.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

391–400 of 403 posts

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

#391

Post by throw4847285 »

bhouston wrote: post #350
throw4847285 wrote: post #329

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't deny that there is more and more research every day about the negative impacts of microplastics on the human body. From my place of relative ignorance, it still seems that more sweeping claims like "Microplastics are responsible for the Flynn Effect and the male infertility crisis" are awfully bold. You throw obesity in there too, and doesn't it seem like folks are trying to pin all of society's ills on a sin…

> it still seems that more sweeping claims like "Microplastics are responsible for the Flynn Effect and the male infertility crisis" are awfully bold You are making my original statements into a straw man argument. I didn't say they are fully responsible, but rather I think they are contributors. I even asked in my original post what else could be contributing: > I think microplastics along with forever chemicals/PFA…

I think we agree more than we disagree. I believe we need to seriously study the effect of microplastics on the human body. I believe the federal government should follow California's example (at a minimum) and take a heavier hand in regulating PFAs and testing water for microplastics. Microplastics are causing a number of negative health effects, some of which are known, many of which are unknown. I don't think we should throw our hands up and give up, not at all.

And yet the study you shared about lead actually proves my point. The meta-analysis showed that the impact of lead on crime is overstated in the literature. And I know a number of sociologists/criminologists, and (though this is anecdotal) they take the lead hypothesis far less seriously than this meta-analysis does. Partially that's due to the fact that this was written by economists, the natural enemy of sociologists. But I digress.

My argument is that simple "scientific" answers to complex social problems get overstated, while the messy stuff gets overlooked. It's a cognitive bias that especially affects the kinds of people on this website, because it substitutes complex social scientific problems with "simple" chemical cause and effects. It doesn't means we we shouldn't address the very real public health crisis. But remember, Rome wasn't built in a day, and it wasn't destroyed by lead pipes. That's a myth.

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

#392

Post by saberience »

dennis_jeeves1 wrote: post #381
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.

[dead]

God bless you sir/madam, but I’m not wrong. There may be some people with “glandular” issues causing them somehow to eat too much but I don’t think I’m saying something controversial when stating that americas obesity crisis is mostly just to do with lazy sedentary people who like eating and watching tv more than eating healthily and doing exercise. Blaming micro plastics, hormonal imbalances blah blah etc is a waste of time, and won’t result in any benefit to anyone.

Most people just need to hear the hard and brutal truth, you’re going to die young because you’re fat and you’re fat because you’re lazy and can’t handle some small amount of effort to abstain or go for a walk.

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

#393

Post by Aerbil313 »

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…

That's because of sugar. Watch the Sugar: The Bitter Truth video on youtube.

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

#394

Post by njovin »

avgcorrection wrote: post #243
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…

> 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. I think it's because those two things can be used to scold consumers and thus inculcate the belief that the final link in the production-consumption chain bears all the blame. I mean I have seen signs encouraging people…

Even most of the mushrooms are wrapped in plastic at the stores I visit :(

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

#395

Post by njovin »

2OEH8eoCRo0 wrote: post #25
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…

> I'm still shocked that there hasn't been more of a regulatory push to eliminate single-use plastics. I'm not- show me the direct harm it is causing on an individual level. We can all agree they are a nuisance but it is hard to show how they are outright harming people. Studies like this are a step towards that proof.

From the article:

> The mice in the study began to move peculiarly, and to exhibit behaviours reminiscent of dementia in humans

I know this is only _in mice_ but the policy we have of "let industry do what they want and if we find out it's harming humans in 30 years we'll do something about it" has not proven to work out so well in the past (lead, DDT, CFCs, cigarettes).

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

#396

Post by kjkjadksj »

joquarky wrote: post #337
kjkjadksj wrote: post #299

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Also the big elephant in the room is most people are hardly active. Your body is designed to forage for miles a day. Who even bothers simulating that? We walk to the fridge and from grocery store to parked car at most. Its so much easier to maintain good health if you are active.

I wonder how much better it would be if we had developed more for walking than for cars.

It doesnt matter how we developed. My city developed for walking first. I can and do walk to places like 10 mins to the grocery store. The problem is for most people, if they have an easier choice than physically moving they take it. So they would rather drive two minutes than walk 10. Its also evident whenever I see an escalator. The escalator will be full of able bodied people while the stairs along side it that take as long to get up as standing still on the escalator are empty, because people chose the option that involves the least effort every chance they get. Never mind getting a little bit of leg exercise on the stairs. At work I routinely see healthy people take the elevator 1 floor instead of the stairwell right next to the elevator.

We have to be taught the value of exercise and being physically active because most people don’t default to that.

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

#397

Post by Shocka1 »

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…

The comment started with "Obesity is caused by eating too much." At the core, this is very much the objective truth. If it so happens that someone processes cake or calories differently than others, they need to eat less cake and take in less calories.

The pervasive obsession with avoiding this truth is concerning and has had a detrimental effect on society. How many of us know someone who passed away from COVID due to this kind of unhealthiness? Primary Care Physicians and health professionals out there need to step it up and be truthful with people.

I can acknowledge the extreme cases where this may not be possible, but 9/10 times we can take ownership of our lives whatever the situation, clean our diets and get out there and exercise.

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

#398

Post by gitaarik »

gregwithtwogs wrote: post #320
drewcon wrote: post #178

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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...

A recent study found that microwaving food in plastic packaging releases a lot of microplastic into the food:

https://news.unl.edu/newsrooms/today/article/nebraska-study-...

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

#399

Post by andric »

artursapek wrote: post #41
andric wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And Long COVID is shaping up to be our generation’s HIV/AIDS. History rhymes because people don’t ever learn. We deal with one problem or crisis at a time, instead of generalizing what was learned in order to help future generations avoid the same mistakes.

Are you seriously comparing AIDS to “long COVID”?

Both AIDS and Long COVID are post-viral, multi-organ, chronic conditions that dysregulate the immune system, through many of the same mechanisms [0].

They are also conditions that severely affects the quality of life of those who are afflicted, increasing the risk of severe life-threatening illnesses [1].

Similar to the early years of the AIDS pandemic (which, I might add, is still ongoing), the harms of Long COVID are not widely understood or acknowledged in clinical practice or among the general population.

[0] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9608044/

[1] https://www.nature.com/articles/s41579-022-00846-2

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

#400

Post by andric »

some_random wrote: post #84
andric wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And Long COVID is shaping up to be our generation’s HIV/AIDS. History rhymes because people don’t ever learn. We deal with one problem or crisis at a time, instead of generalizing what was learned in order to help future generations avoid the same mistakes.

I don't think you quite appreciate how fucking bad HIV/AIDS was, and is to this day.

Why do you think I said Long COVID is shaping up to be like HIV/AIDS?

The parallels between the two are stark: How the CDC and NIH bungled public health advice and research funding, how clinicians are ill-equipped to treat it, how the public is clueless about the long-term harms of post-viral immune dysregulation [0].

[0] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9608044/

Post reply on HN