Earlier quoted context omitted.
> Stop driving? Not a realistic solution. The vast majority of people will take the microplastics over not driving.
Until the concentration is high enough it affects birth rates.
It might already do.
Study Finds Microplastics in Nearly 90% of Proteins Sampled
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Re: Study Finds Microplastics in Nearly 90% of Proteins Sampled
#42If this has been happening for decades, why are lifespans still increasing, why are average heights of new generations increasing, etc? I know PFAS are hormonal disrupters in research but it seems like most people are doing... just fine?
Re: Study Finds Microplastics in Nearly 90% of Proteins Sampled
#43Re: Study Finds Microplastics in Nearly 90% of Proteins Sampled
#44Earlier quoted context omitted.
Stop driving? Most microplastic in water come from tires. I've been trying to make small moves away from car infrastructure in my town and the response is, well, less than positive. We already tacitly accept that cars are one of the biggest causes of death. Reducing car infrastructure to reduce microplastics, where we don't even really know the harm, seems far far more challenging.
I think of tires as being made of rubber. Where does the plastic come from?
A car tire is not purely rubber, it is combined with synthetic polymers derived from petroleum and petroleum derivatives (same as plastics).
Re: Study Finds Microplastics in Nearly 90% of Proteins Sampled
#45Can someone ELI5 this for me: how would microplastics passing through a digestive system end up in "proteins*"? Are they being stored directly in the fats, within cells, between muscle fibers...? (* the article seems to be using the term "protein" in the culinary sense, not the molecular sense).
You know how mercury bioaccumulates up the food chain? It looks like microplastics are similar [1] [2], and they are everywhere in the food web [3]. It's even in the bottled water [4]. [1] https://www.euronews.com/next/2023/08/30/microplastics-could... [2] https://www.uri.edu/news/2023/08/microplastics-infiltrate-al... [3] https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=false&qu... [4] https://news.ycombinator.co…
It's _especially_ in the bottled water.
Re: Study Finds Microplastics in Nearly 90% of Proteins Sampled
#46If this has been happening for decades, why are lifespans still increasing, why are average heights of new generations increasing, etc? I know PFAS are hormonal disrupters in research but it seems like most people are doing... just fine?
> why are lifespans still increasing
We are burning huge amounts of fossil fuels to run the economy. This economic boon leads to longer lifetimes, at a huge but externalized and delayed cost.
> it seems like most people are doing... just fine?
Where do you live?
Outside of affluent areas, I think most people these days would laugh at such an absurd claim. We are not fine, physically or mentally.
Our soil isn't fine. Our air isn't fine. Our water isn't fine - not our wells, our rivers, our lakes, our oceans, or even our icecaps. Our species are being made extinct at 1000x the background rate of extinction. Anyone fine with this is on the ignorant side of blissful.
Re: Study Finds Microplastics in Nearly 90% of Proteins Sampled
#47>Notably, across all samples, nearly half (44%) of the identified microplastics were fibers, which is consistent with other studies suggesting that fibers are the most prevalent form of microplastic in the environment. Seems like one could live on a vegan diet and still be consuming a lot of plastic fiber. My favorite blankets, rugs, and t-shirts are all 100% polyester. Even if I managed to use avoid plastics at home…
An even stranger but annoying problem is even if you buy 100% cotton, the stitching is usually a polyester. It is difficult to buy cotton threads for home sewing
Re: Study Finds Microplastics in Nearly 90% of Proteins Sampled
#48>Notably, across all samples, nearly half (44%) of the identified microplastics were fibers, which is consistent with other studies suggesting that fibers are the most prevalent form of microplastic in the environment. Seems like one could live on a vegan diet and still be consuming a lot of plastic fiber. My favorite blankets, rugs, and t-shirts are all 100% polyester. Even if I managed to use avoid plastics at home…
Avoiding synthetics in clothing is indeed difficult. I buy 100% natural fibers where I can, but sadly often the best one can do is ~90% natural ~10% synthetic.
100% cotton would seem to be widely available? Certainly for shirts, t-shirts, jumpers, trousers, socks. I don't wear anything other than cotton really for those items.
For some reason they have started putting stretchy stuff into cotton jeans - maybe style, or maybe (my pet theory) that good quality cotton is no longer economic for jean production, and so they have to use rougher cotton, which needs the stretchy stuff to be comfortable enough to wear.
Re: Study Finds Microplastics in Nearly 90% of Proteins Sampled
#49Can someone ELI5 this for me: how would microplastics passing through a digestive system end up in "proteins*"? Are they being stored directly in the fats, within cells, between muscle fibers...? (* the article seems to be using the term "protein" in the culinary sense, not the molecular sense).
You know how mercury bioaccumulates up the food chain? It looks like microplastics are similar [1] [2], and they are everywhere in the food web [3]. It's even in the bottled water [4]. [1] https://www.euronews.com/next/2023/08/30/microplastics-could... [2] https://www.uri.edu/news/2023/08/microplastics-infiltrate-al... [3] https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=false&qu... [4] https://news.ycombinator.co…
> It's even in the bottled water
The bottled water that comes in plastic bottles? Not that surprising?
Re: Study Finds Microplastics in Nearly 90% of Proteins Sampled
#50>Notably, across all samples, nearly half (44%) of the identified microplastics were fibers, which is consistent with other studies suggesting that fibers are the most prevalent form of microplastic in the environment. Seems like one could live on a vegan diet and still be consuming a lot of plastic fiber. My favorite blankets, rugs, and t-shirts are all 100% polyester. Even if I managed to use avoid plastics at home…
Avoiding synthetics in clothing is indeed difficult. I buy 100% natural fibers where I can, but sadly often the best one can do is ~90% natural ~10% synthetic.
100% cotton shirts and pants are not that rare.