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

nautil.us

61–70 of 341 posts

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

#61
The plastics themselves are only part of the story - they are relatively inert. However chemicals used to plasticize them and prevent fire are not, and some of them are already banned, but we have insufficient days on the replacements used.

(Phenolics such as Bisphenol A - have hormonal effects causing direct cancer risk. And other effects too.)

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

#62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

>>Turns out masks are not made of asbestos.

Neither are cigarettes, but getting enough cigarette smoke in your lung does causes cancer.

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

#64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Turns out masks are not made of asbestos. Unsurprisingly, masks safety and effectiveness has been studied extremely extensively.

certain groups (nurses, doctors or certain workers) have to wear a masks all of the time for years. It would have definitely been noticed if it would cause such effects...the control group exists, just compare it to the rest. It would have been obvious.

>>certain groups (nurses, doctors or certain workers) have to wear a masks all of the time for years

Not really - doctors/nurses etc have for a very long time worn masks for short periods of times, for certain procedures, for certain hours of the day for some days in the week- very few HC professionals have ever had to wear masks continually all day long, day after day and then also for additional chunks of time as they go about their non-work life.

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

#65
post #30
post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Apparently it's a myth https://www.sleep.org/sleep-questions/debunking-sleep-myths-...

This article was sponsored by Big Spider.

Is it me or are the comments haha funny here, like reddit 2.0.

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

#66
post #59

The actual study is here https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S030438942... The study presents three scenarios assuming different assumptions about the mass of plastic particles. In the worst case scenario, where I think the assumptions are bad, they estimate 5g of plastic per week. In the other two scenarios which used more complex but more realistic modelling they estimate 0.15 and 0.3g of plastic cons…

I can't take anyone seriously who publishes a pie-chart like this: https://ars.els-cdn.com/content/image/1-s2.0-S03043894203199...

That seems a rather arbitrary trait to dismiss a researcher for. It is possible to be correct with flawed design choices.

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

#67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Based on what particle size?

N95 masks filter 95% of 0.3 micron particles.

Fun fact: 0.3 micron particles are the most penetrating particles of any size, including smaller particles. It’s counterintuitive, but 0.1 micron particles will be filtered out more easily than 0.3 micron particles. [0] That’s in fact why all masks are rated this way, since it gives you the absolute worst case. It’s fair to say that an N95 would filter out at least 95% of all particles.

[0] Wikipedia graph showing this: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HEPA#/media/File:Filteration_C...

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

#68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Yes and silicate is an environmental component that's well understood and our bodies have adapted to it because sand has been a thing forever. And glass is chemically inert.

Asbestos is a silicate…

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

#70
post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This article was sponsored by Big Spider.

Is it me or are the comments haha funny here, like reddit 2.0.

This is the Purge. It's how the rest of the threads are able to be kept so serious.
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