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

Study finds billions of nanoplastics released when microwaving containers

news.unl.edu

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

251–260 of 344 posts

Re: Study finds billions of nanoplastics released when microwaving containers

#251

Post by bbatha »

balls187 wrote: post #230
chrisco255 wrote: post #122

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Cast iron is not bad at all to clean if you have a chain link steel scrubber (The Lodge sells these, other companies too). Ideally you scrub it when the pan is still warm. If you've let something sit in there that hardens, like cheese, you may have to let it soak in some warm water for a bit and apply elbow grease with the scrubber. You can even fill it with water and set it on the stove to warm the water up a bit to…

I wouldn’t soak a cast iron pan. Just apply a little heat, then use a bamboo/wood spatula to scrape the stuck food, then rinse (if needed) and wipe clean. For me, the biggest problem with Cast iron is the weight. I’m a big guy, with physical strength commensurate to my size, and cast iron pans are cumbersome to deal with. I have a 9” pan that I leave on the stove for daily use, but I don’t want to have cast iron cook…

Carbon steel has much the same cooking properties as cast iron but is like half the weight. You can get a good pan very cheap if you want to try something more wieldy.

Re: Study finds billions of nanoplastics released when microwaving containers

#252

Post by balaji1 »

flangola7 wrote: post #158
y7 wrote: post #145

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Those things could be related to any change in society. There's nothing to suggest it's plastics in particular, right?

If it isn't plastic then what is it? We have been steadily identifying and reducing the number of toxic agents the public is exposed to. Fifty years ago in the 70s the average person would have regular exposure to lead gas, lead paint, tobacco smoke (even if they didn't smoke themselves - indoor smoking was still legal), potent pesticides, and maybe even asbestos. But there were far fewer everyday plastics at the tim…

> We have been steadily identifying and reducing the number of toxic agents the public is exposed to

In some cases, we have just been uncovering what the businesses selling a toxic product already knew but covered up for a quick buck - even using sophisticated and “scientific” arguments.

In many cases, we just need the right incentive from the regulators. To prioritize long term thinking.

Re: Study finds billions of nanoplastics released when microwaving containers

#253

Post by [deleted] »

mrob wrote: post #146
Aurornis wrote: post #35

> Rather than introduce just the number of particles released by one container, the researchers instead exposed the cells to particle concentrations that infants and toddlers might accumulate over days or from multiple sources. > After two days, just 23% of kidney cells exposed to the highest concentrations had managed to survive So they used concentrations that they believe toddlers might accumulate over two days an…

It's bad reporting. The actual numbers from the abstract are "22.1 ng/kg·day" for the worst case ingested dose, and "1000 μg/mL" for the tested toxic concentration. If you assume the solvent is water (solvent isn't specified in the abstract but water is the obvious choice) and convert the units to make it easier to compare, that toxic dose is "1,000,000,000ng/kg". There's no plausible way a toddler is going to accumu…

[deleted]

Re: Study finds billions of nanoplastics released when microwaving containers

#255

Post by malfist »

ryzvonusef wrote: post #254

I think studies/articles like these just cause fatigue rather than motivation. At this point I just don't give a damn, microplastic away.

I'm sorry you feel this way, but sticking your head in the sand doesn't make things better

Re: Study finds billions of nanoplastics released when microwaving containers

#256

Post by [deleted] »

chrisco255 wrote: post #122
autoexec wrote: post #114

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah, this is one of those cases where I think it's better to take the cautious route. Now that we know we're ingesting massive amounts of plastics and it's been found in every human organ, and in blood, and in breast milk, etc I think it's probably a good idea to take what steps we can to cut down on it until things are more clear about the harms. Avoiding this exposure will be easy for me, because I was never very…

Cast iron is not bad at all to clean if you have a chain link steel scrubber (The Lodge sells these, other companies too). Ideally you scrub it when the pan is still warm. If you've let something sit in there that hardens, like cheese, you may have to let it soak in some warm water for a bit and apply elbow grease with the scrubber. You can even fill it with water and set it on the stove to warm the water up a bit to…

[deleted]

Re: Study finds billions of nanoplastics released when microwaving containers

#258

Post by foobiekr »

XorNot wrote: post #136
teekert wrote: post #115

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We are seeing a steady increase in childhood cancer [0] and our male population now has half the sperm count the same population had in 70s [1]. [0]: https://www.mja.com.au/journal/2020/212/3/incidence-childhoo... [1]: https://backreaction.blogspot.com/2022/11/why-are-male-testo...

Overweight and obese men are more likely to have lowered sperm counts[1] and obesity has tripled since 1970[2]. [1] https://www.healthymale.org.au/news/obesity-overweight-can-i... [2] https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/obesity-and...

Have you considered that you are simply listing two symptoms together instead of identifying cause and effect?

Re: Study finds billions of nanoplastics released when microwaving containers

#259

Post by Lutger »

teekert wrote: post #246
y7 wrote: post #145

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Those things could be related to any change in society. There's nothing to suggest it's plastics in particular, right?

FWIW I think this is a good remark. It's just correlation until proven otherwise. I was just saying there are changes in society, one of which is the widespread use of plastics, and there are changes in population health roughly starting along the same time. But indeed, we also started to do sitting work massively, and started using wireless communications etc. Then again, we also reduced coal use in cities, we burn…

It really, really hard to prove causation beyond doubt. If you have a strong correlation and a reasonable concern that it might be causal relationship, and we are talking about health impacts, at some point it is rational to use the precautionary principle and take action even if you don't have definite proof.

As an extreme example, we actually can't state with 100% confidence that exercise is good for your health, it's just too hard to prove. But nobody with a sane mind will doubt it.

Re: Study finds billions of nanoplastics released when microwaving containers

#260

Post by lifeonlars »

parentheses wrote: post #62
Aurornis wrote: post #35

> Rather than introduce just the number of particles released by one container, the researchers instead exposed the cells to particle concentrations that infants and toddlers might accumulate over days or from multiple sources. > After two days, just 23% of kidney cells exposed to the highest concentrations had managed to survive So they used concentrations that they believe toddlers might accumulate over two days an…

The article is only presenting that: 1. nano/microplastics kill kidney cells in a lab environment 2. nano/microplastics come from microwaving containers Regardless of whether you agree with the conclusion _you_ are drawing from reading the article, the article is saying those things. In order to make a real-world-ish experiment, we'd have to start experimenting on children. I feel that while you're expressing outrage…

Obviously you don't have to "start experimenting on children". One can survey parents on whether or not they used microwaves, plastic containers, or not, look at the health of the children concerned in later years, and then work from that data.
Post reply on HN