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

Microplastics in the olfactory bulb of the human brain

jamanetwork.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

1–10 of 186 posts

Re: Microplastics in the olfactory bulb of the human brain

#4

Post by throwanem »

KingFelix wrote: post #3
ClumsyPilot wrote: post #2

What the plan to deal with this? People make fun of doomers, but this unfixable. PS: originally this said boomers, but I meant Doomers, as I. People who run around screaming the world is doomed

nanobots?

Just the thing when you've swallowed a fly.

Re: Microplastics in the olfactory bulb of the human brain

#5

Post by kibwen »

ClumsyPilot wrote: post #2

What the plan to deal with this? People make fun of doomers, but this unfixable. PS: originally this said boomers, but I meant Doomers, as I. People who run around screaming the world is doomed

Lead and asbestos in housing and consumer products were similarly intractable, but we (mostly) banned them anyway. We're still dealing with removal and mitigation decades later, but at least those problem aren't getting any worse. At some point you have to say enough is enough and ban plastics in contexts where they're most likely to find pathways into the biosphere: food containers, disposable goods, clothes, car tires, water pipes, etc. Just because the problem will take centuries to resolve doesn't mean that we can't start now.

Re: Microplastics in the olfactory bulb of the human brain

#7

Post by cube2222 »

Does someone have good papers on the negative effects of microplastics (ideally on humans)?

A while back I tried to look for those, and it was nontrivial to find papers that would conclusively show that they are harmful, and the mechanisms of this harmfulness.

There's a ton of press about where they are (everywhere) but (as a layman) you could argue it's because they're not very reactive, and this lack of reactivity could mean they're not actually that harmful, and are just there.

Take TFA as an example. Based on the abstract it shows that microplastics are there, but concludes with "highlighting the need for further research on their neurotoxic effects and implications for human health".

Now of course doing good studies about this is extremely hard, as it's hard to find subjects untouched by microplastics for control groups, but I hope someone here can provide me with some good sources on this.

To be clear, I'm not trying to deny the harmfulness here, I'm just looking for good related content.

Re: Microplastics in the olfactory bulb of the human brain

#10

Post by ch4s3 »

cube2222 wrote: post #7

Does someone have good papers on the negative effects of microplastics (ideally on humans)? A while back I tried to look for those, and it was nontrivial to find papers that would conclusively show that they are harmful, and the mechanisms of this harmfulness. There's a ton of press about where they are (everywhere) but (as a layman) you could argue it's because they're not very reactive, and this lack of reactivity…

Based on a similar search, my take away was that it’s too early to tell. Animal models suggest some risks, but it’s not very clear if that translates to humans. Feeding plastic to mice isn’t an exact analogue.
Post reply on HN