Remember that car tire degredation is a significant portion of microplastics in the environment. Investing in mass transit is as imperative as it was to move away from leaded gasoline.
Mass rail transit.
Didn't want to come off as too foamer ;)
Microplastics in the human brain
181–190 of 219 posts
Re: Microplastics in the human brain
#182Remember that car tire degredation is a significant portion of microplastics in the environment. Investing in mass transit is as imperative as it was to move away from leaded gasoline.
What percentage is that?
Re: Microplastics in the human brain
#183Earlier quoted context omitted.
> I grow most of my own produce, with RO water Do you really grow enough food to make up most of your diet on RO water? And is this specifically to avoid microplastic exposure, or what?
I grow around 1/3 of my own food. Yes all with RO water. I'd like to get above 50%. Specifically produce, however we grow most of what we eat. We pressure can, dehydrate and ferment to preserve. I have background and decades of experience in growing, which is to say it's more than just standard hobby garden level. The RO water is not to avoid microplastics (although that might a side benefit) but rather that the wate…
This is really interesting. Do you have suggestions how to use RO in garden scale? (Like link where could I start)
Re: Microplastics in the human brain
#184Earlier quoted context omitted.
> you don't need to haul a weeks worth of groceries but can get fresh food every single day I lived that life in my 20s Turns out I don't actually want to go to the grocery store every day. I want to go once a week and stock up, which I can do thanks to inventions like the refrigerator and the automobile
Well good news, nothing is stoping you from bringing home a full cartful of groceries that walking distance either. You just have more options. Now, if you are really attached to your car and are only open to using your car for groceries, stay in suburbia, it's oversupplied through centralized planning and not at risk of going anywhere!
> Well good news, nothing is stoping you from bringing home a full cartful of groceries that walking distance either
Dunno about you but I only have two hands and can only carry so much at one time
I could have bought and brought a wagon or something I suppose, but that presents its own problems.
Where do I store the wagon in my tiny apartment?
What do I do with it when I'm actually in the store shopping, to make sure no one steals it while I'm in the store? I can't bring it into the store, it's too bulky for narrow urban grocery store aisles
How do I get my wagon full of groceries to my apartment, with no elevator?
Actually how do I get my empty wagon up to my apartment even, it's not going to manage narrow stairwells very easily even empty. So even if I leave it at the bottom and carry my groceries up by hand, I still have to get the wagon itself upstairs somehow
And then I also own a wagon that takes up my limited apartment space, which I only use to get groceries and provides no other utility for my life.
Unlike a car which I use all the time and only one of those uses is getting groceries
Re: Microplastics in the human brain
#185Earlier quoted context omitted.
> I grow most of my own produce, with RO water Do you really grow enough food to make up most of your diet on RO water? And is this specifically to avoid microplastic exposure, or what?
I grow around 1/3 of my own food. Yes all with RO water. I'd like to get above 50%. Specifically produce, however we grow most of what we eat. We pressure can, dehydrate and ferment to preserve. I have background and decades of experience in growing, which is to say it's more than just standard hobby garden level. The RO water is not to avoid microplastics (although that might a side benefit) but rather that the wate…
Interesting, thanks!
Re: Microplastics in the human brain
#186Earlier quoted context omitted.
And we need more lightweight cars , not heavier, since tire wear is proportional to vehicle weight to the fourth power. Ironically, CAFE regulations and EV incentives both did the opposite
Do you have a citation for the vehicle weight to the fourth figure? There is about a 2X variation in the weight of the vehicles I’ve owned, but even accounting for differences in tire size, I can’t come up with a 16x difference in how often I change the tires. Thinking about it a different way, there isn’t much difference in recommended tire pressure among the autos I’ve owned. That means that the pressure between th…
Most studies I've seen on this topic agree that the amount of pollution created is not linear, and this also makes intuitive sense. The heavier your vehicle, the wider and/or larger diameter your tires need to be to give it the required amount of grip. If those bigger tires wear out in the same time as your smaller vehicle tires, you've already created considerably more pollution.
Re: Microplastics in the human brain
#187Earlier quoted context omitted.
Yeah, I’d expect EVs to get lighter over time as technology progresses. Car bloat is a much bigger problem. Totally insane that little practical city cars like the Honda Fit have gone practically extinct in the US in favor of bigger, heavier cars that don’t even necessarily bring improved cargo capacity for all that extra bulk.
I have a 2018 Fit and it's a fantastic car. It gets 36 MPG and has much more interior space than it would seem. I've had taller people ride in it comfortably and its crowning achievement was fitting a hot water heater in the cargo area with the rear seat split -- without having to remove the child car seat on the other side. Pair a roof rack and you really don't need more -- especially day-to-day. It's a crying shame…
Marketing does seem to work, especially over generations. I think the main reason trucks/SUVs were marketed so much was because of a 25% tax on imported light trucks and not cars. The so called "chicken tax"[1] was imposed on light trucks in 1964 and is still with us today.
Re: Microplastics in the human brain
#188Earlier quoted context omitted.
How did the amount of brain microplastic manage to double between 2016 and 2025? The amount of cars hasn't changed that much.
Perhaps you're thinking our body is at equilibrium with the amount of plastic in our environment, but the reality may be that our body accumulates microplastics from the environment and they become concentrated over time. Kind of like how we can't get rid of heavy metals from our body, so eating lots of fish accumulates mercury to toxic levels. But eating fish is a conscious decision whereas microplastic exposure is…
You can probably reduce microplastic consumption, but it is quite a pain and more expensive. Try buying everything at the store not wrapped/bottled in plastic. This does not even work as well as you might think as many things are wrapped in plastic and then presented as if they were not. For example, breakfast sausages in the meat display at my local Whole Foods are wrapped in paper when they give it to you, but come to the store in ~1lb plastic wrapped packages.
Re: Microplastics in the human brain
#189Earlier quoted context omitted.
And we need more lightweight cars , not heavier, since tire wear is proportional to vehicle weight to the fourth power. Ironically, CAFE regulations and EV incentives both did the opposite
Do you have a citation for the vehicle weight to the fourth figure? There is about a 2X variation in the weight of the vehicles I’ve owned, but even accounting for differences in tire size, I can’t come up with a 16x difference in how often I change the tires. Thinking about it a different way, there isn’t much difference in recommended tire pressure among the autos I’ve owned. That means that the pressure between th…
This Engineering Explained video seems pretty thorough. The short of it is that your intuition is in the right direction, its definitely not to the fourth power of weight. Vehicle weight does contribute to wear but according to Continental its less important than driving style and road curviness.
Re: Microplastics in the human brain
#190Remember that car tire degredation is a significant portion of microplastics in the environment. Investing in mass transit is as imperative as it was to move away from leaded gasoline.
How did the amount of brain microplastic manage to double between 2016 and 2025? The amount of cars hasn't changed that much.
Perhaps the proportion of synthetic rubber (vs natural rubber) is increasing in tires?