Live data from Hacker News

Nanoplastic Ingestion Causes Neurological Deficits

the-scientist.com

21–30 of 339 posts

Re: Nanoplastic Ingestion Causes Neurological Deficits

#21
post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you can, there are some great borosilicate glass containers out there. I use them for everything. The ones I have seal well enough that I can fill it with soup and stick it in a backpack, ride somewhere and it's fine on the other side. Thick enough to be basically unbreakable, microwavable, dishwasher-safe, etc. Don't need to worry about tomato staining either like on plastic. I've been thrilled with mine.

Aren’t the lids typically plastic though?

Yes, but the vast majority of the container being glass still has advantages. For example, whenever heating it, you'd remove the lid and only be heating the glass.

Re: Nanoplastic Ingestion Causes Neurological Deficits

#22
post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you can, there are some great borosilicate glass containers out there. I use them for everything. The ones I have seal well enough that I can fill it with soup and stick it in a backpack, ride somewhere and it's fine on the other side. Thick enough to be basically unbreakable, microwavable, dishwasher-safe, etc. Don't need to worry about tomato staining either like on plastic. I've been thrilled with mine.

Aren’t the lids typically plastic though?

Yeah. At least the food usually isn't in contact with the lid though.

Re: Nanoplastic Ingestion Causes Neurological Deficits

#23
post #13

and we're just soooo much smarter nowadays than we were 1000 years ago...

I mean the average lifespan in the year 1000 was about 31, so we’re doing at least a few things right.

that's dominated by child mortality; people who survived to teen years typically lived much longer than 31

Re: Nanoplastic Ingestion Causes Neurological Deficits

#24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you can, there are some great borosilicate glass containers out there. I use them for everything. The ones I have seal well enough that I can fill it with soup and stick it in a backpack, ride somewhere and it's fine on the other side. Thick enough to be basically unbreakable, microwavable, dishwasher-safe, etc. Don't need to worry about tomato staining either like on plastic. I've been thrilled with mine.

Aren't the lids still plastic? I've never seen ones with glass lids.

And that is fine. We aren't going to be taking our spoons and forks and scraping the food from the plastic lip as we would with the container nor is the lid in contact with food should we warm it in the microware.

Re: Nanoplastic Ingestion Causes Neurological Deficits

#25
post #13

and we're just soooo much smarter nowadays than we were 1000 years ago...

I mean the average lifespan in the year 1000 was about 31, so we’re doing at least a few things right.

From what I've read, if you filter out children under 5 in that statistic people lived into their early 60's pretty regularly.

Re: Nanoplastic Ingestion Causes Neurological Deficits

#26
post #7
post #4

My mum when I was a kid in the 90s: we don't store things in plastic, glass or ceramic only Me when I was a kid in the 90s: mum is a f'ing idiot wtf is wrong with plastic this hippy shit is dumb My mum 2020s: so plastic huh? Me 2020s: ugh.

A good set of mason jars is great for lunches, for salads and pastas and the like. They seal better than tupper, they're microwave-safe, they're standardized so you can get replacement lids easily, and they're pretty rugged. I use metal when the kids are too young for glass.

By "too young for glass", I'm assuming you mainly hint at weight – which happens to be basically the only, but quite significant downside to glass.

The material itself is already about 1.5× to 2× as dense as your average container plastic, plus since you're aiming for at least a decent strength, on top of that the wall thickness will probably be several times larger too.

Re: Nanoplastic Ingestion Causes Neurological Deficits

#27
post #10
post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A good set of mason jars is great for lunches, for salads and pastas and the like. They seal better than tupper, they're microwave-safe, they're standardized so you can get replacement lids easily, and they're pretty rugged. I use metal when the kids are too young for glass.

Metal usually has a plastic coating though, doesn't it?

Food/drink cans do. Reusable storage made from stainless steel usually doesn't.

Re: Nanoplastic Ingestion Causes Neurological Deficits

#28
post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I mean the average lifespan in the year 1000 was about 31, so we’re doing at least a few things right.

Isn't that average lifespan? There was a lot of death either in childbirth or during early childhood years. If you filter that data out a bit, adults lived a more comparable age. Still not as good as today, but not 31.

>Excluding child mortality, the average life expectancy during the 12th–19th centuries was approximately 55 years

So still worse by whole decades than now.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Life_expectancy#:~:text=Excl....

Re: Nanoplastic Ingestion Causes Neurological Deficits

#29
post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I mean the average lifespan in the year 1000 was about 31, so we’re doing at least a few things right.

Isn't that average lifespan? There was a lot of death either in childbirth or during early childhood years. If you filter that data out a bit, adults lived a more comparable age. Still not as good as today, but not 31.

TBH I'm not sure the argument that only women and those under 5 were dying young in large numbers is a great rebuttal to the idea that we were better off in 1023.

Re: Nanoplastic Ingestion Causes Neurological Deficits

#30
Sorry people, but you can't stop it:

1. https://www.euronews.com/green/2022/04/11/how-much-plastic-d...

2. https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2022/mar/24/micropla...

3. https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2019/apr/15/winds-ca...

Because humanity and capitalism's incentives are just wrong. Bottling companies like Coca Cola and Snapple have long switched to plastic bottles, and externalized the cost to the environment.

My recommendation would be to tax negative externalities and redistribute all of it as a UBI to the people of the country. Simple and effective, but apparently the governments have been moving way too slowly.

What's worse is that the governments perpetuate a lie to the public, making them think they can individually make a difference. In the case of plastic the lie was "recycling", when in fact the plastics were simply shipped to China, who dumped them in landfills and rivers.

But the government tells the individual that they can't have a plastic straw or bag. It's all there to distract the individuals from banding together and demanding the costs be imposed on the corporations which put out metric tons every day. I write more about this phenomenon here: https://magarshak.com/blog/?p=362

And it's not just the bottling companies. It's all the packaging. It's the clothes using synthetic fabrics like polyester, which generate microplastics flushed in every wash. And so on. Convenience is when you'd rather have a one-time-use spoon shipped from China, than wash and re-use a spoon. Your ancestors re-filled containers.

If we made it more costly for these companies, they'd long ago have researched biodegradable alternatives.

Post reply on HN