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

What is our hidden consumption of microplastics doing to our health?

nautil.us

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

21–30 of 341 posts

Re: What is our hidden consumption of microplastics doing to our health?

#21

Post by saalweachter »

mkr-hn wrote: post #19
pcthrowaway wrote: post #16

Quoted post unavailable.

It seems like one of the countries where masking while sick and during flu/cold season is common would have some studies on this.

You'd notice it in professional populations, I'd wager.

I also assume it would be a confounding factor in any study that involved masks, if it was a significant effect. "Weird, the group that breathed in asbestos for 20 years without wearing a mask had 90% more lung cancer than the masked group, but 20% less XYZ. Does asbestos exposure prevent XYZ?"

Re: What is our hidden consumption of microplastics doing to our health?

#22

Post by dukeofdoom »

pcthrowaway wrote: post #16

Quoted post unavailable.

Fibers embedded in lung tissue is how asbestos causes lung cancer, so wouldn't surprise me. Wearing a mask for an entire work day, than inevitably some of those mask fibers will get to your lungs. Its only a question if your lung tissue is not able to clear out some of them, that will cause inflammation, that long term can lead to cancer.

Re: What is our hidden consumption of microplastics doing to our health?

#23

Post by fsflover »

moffkalast wrote: post #5
mckirk wrote: post #4

A startup selling probiotics containing plastic-eating bacteria, anyone?

As long as you don't spill any and wake up tomorrow with all the plastic in your house eaten.

Who cares about externalities of your business today? /s

Re: What is our hidden consumption of microplastics doing to our health?

#25

Post by MauranKilom »

tommek4077 wrote: post #14

How much glass do I consume? Or is glass, dust, whatever - any different from plastics?

Well, SiO2 is pretty different from plastic, chemically speaking. And I would expect that we inhale several grams of fine sand dust per week too.

In other words, the amount of "glass" entering your body because you drank a beer is probably irrelevant compared to e.g. Sahara dust (if you're in Europe) in the air around you.

Re: What is our hidden consumption of microplastics doing to our health?

#26

Post by goodpoint »

dukeofdoom wrote: post #22
pcthrowaway wrote: post #16

Quoted post unavailable.

Fibers embedded in lung tissue is how asbestos causes lung cancer, so wouldn't surprise me. Wearing a mask for an entire work day, than inevitably some of those mask fibers will get to your lungs. Its only a question if your lung tissue is not able to clear out some of them, that will cause inflammation, that long term can lead to cancer.

Turns out masks are not made of asbestos.

Unsurprisingly, masks safety and effectiveness has been studied extremely extensively.

Re: What is our hidden consumption of microplastics doing to our health?

#28

Post by walterbell »

goodpoint wrote: post #24
pcthrowaway wrote: post #16

Quoted post unavailable.

If anything, it's the very opposite. Wearing a mask has additional benefits of filtering out pollution, microplastics in the air and blocking common flu, pollen etc.

Based on what particle size?
Post reply on HN