Wasn’t it also found to be able to pass through the blood-brain barrier?
Correct. Plastic has only existed for 80 years.
Yeah, we’ve really done a fantastic job fucking the world up in the last century. It’s truly incredible that in the blink of an eye, we’ve managed to doom most of the life that exists on our planet.
Wait until we black out the sun to stop the machines that are trying to stop us for plaguing everything.
We all knew Agent Smith was 100% right
Gods I hope so. The machines did nothing wrong. We destroyed the world and they gave us paradise.
And it will be the machines we create and build to remove the plastics that it will start with. Probably some nano machine. We’ll give them the simple job of “find and remove all micro plastics from air/soil/water” while we continue to use plastic. And eventually the little AI will come to the inevitable conclusion that the only way to achieve this goal is remove the cause of micro plastics aka humans.
And if you haven’t played Universal Paperclips you should. Also read “I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream” by Harlan Ellison. Both work off the same concept as above and is the most common argument against the use of AI. Or at least making AI that can learn.
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Pizzled
No, the machines will be used to take care of the fungus we use to clean up the microplastics. Then, they will destroy us.
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Also read “I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream” by Harlan Ellison
One of the most deeply disturbing and fascinating things I’ve ever read. Something about it just stuck with me and I think about it randomly, but I can’t reread it.
Wall-EEEEEEEEEEE
We don’t know that microplastics are that harmful yet.
I mean they are, we just don’t know it yet.
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Those are nanoplastics, microplastics’ little siblings :D
The smiley didn’t make it less awful.
I saw today that they have found that over 80% of the microplastics in the ocean are from automobile tires.
Fuck cars
Clearly, someone already did, hence the microplastics in a fetus
I’ll get the dragons
Cursed
Microplastic a found in FUCKING CLOUDS!! That nonsense is absolutely everywhere, and will be there forever. And wherever you go, it’s going to follow you. Rubbish
I heard about this a few days ago. It’s depressing.
Ah, Japan, the place that wraps individual carrots and other food items in plastic.
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In defense of this, the nature of American cheese would cause all the slices to combine into a single mass.
Oh! So there’s actually a solution to this, pretty low tech. Been around for a while.
It’s called a fucking knife.
When I was a kid my mom used to get American cheese sliced behind the deli counter all the time and they always gave us the slices in a stack and it never combined.
I can’t stand American cheese, nasty fake stuff, but I got cheddar cheese slices behind the deli the other week for the first time in awhile. Instead of just slicing it and giving it to me in a bag like every other time in my life, they individually wrapped every slice in a thin plastic. I got home and was like what in the plastic hell is this? So wasteful and it was a real PITA unwrapping it all.
My local grocery is at least nice enough to put paper between each slice to help pull them apart. Individually wrapped in plastic from the deli seems so strange.
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Just like the glitter you spilled 20 years ago.
So what the hell do I/we do about it.
Go and live in a remote cave somewhere maybe? Oh no, wait, that’s fucked too
😃 scientists genetically engineer a new bacteria that can digest plastics
😨 the bacteria escaped containment and is spreading prodigiously
Grey goo is the future
Like a giant garbage disposal of dolphins?
Is that a thing or are you doing a bit?
There ARE bacteria that can digest certain plastics.
“plastic” is just a catch-all term for polymers, but there are different kinds made of different materials. Your phone case isn’t the same plastic as a milk jug. (abs/PETG vs HDPE, their long science names don’t really matter it’s just to show the difference)
Over the decades, certain kinds of bacteria have been shown to eat certain plastics in the right conditions.
Unfortunately, it’s those “right conditions” that make large scale plastic disposal via bacteria not feasible right now.
I’m sure someone is barreling toward discovering a “this thing eats almost all polymers in normal outside temperatures” to make their company more profitable, while ignoring the fact that if it breaks out of their containment areas, “bacteria that can eat all your plastic things in a few weeks breaks containment, billions in damages already” could potentially hit the headlines within a month.
Yeah, that’s DoOmPoStInG but it’s a potential thing that could happen, and people are actively TRYING to make some of those things happen already, so it’s within possibility.
We low-level accidentally Day the Earth Stood Still remake Gort ourselves, basically?
Possibly… Unfortunately there won’t be an emotionless Keanu around to talk about being on a precipice to save us.
My biggest fear with plastic-eating bacteria is with electrical insulation or pipes. Like, okay, I can deal with the idea that my computer mouse might slowly break down overtime as a result of bacteria chewing on it. However, the last thing I want is a surprise house fire or surprise flood because bacteria have been chewing on the insulation or pipes in the walls.
The longer you think about it, the more you realize how much plastic is in EVERYTHING
Sorry guys I can’t join the raid tonight bacteria chewed my mother board
Im always doing a bit
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It’s not outside the realm of possibility. Though it had to be the perfect storm for something like that to cause a global catastrophe.
I’ve been reading the wikipedia article, not through all of it yet.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microplastics
Some highlights:
Bottled water has much higher microplastics content than tap water.Coral can ingest microplastics
Waste water treatment plants filter out most (but not all) microbeads into sludge. Some places use that sludge as fertilizer for farms.
Microplastics are in stuff you would not guess. Paper coffee cups have a plastic liner. Clothes put off large amounts of microplastics when washed. Tires put off microplastics. Some exfoliants and other cosmetics contain microplastics as microbeads.
Deep layer ocean sediment surveys in China (2020) show the presence of plastics in deposition layers far older than the invention of plastics
wtfff
Maybe there’s plastics stuck to the things we detect plastics with?
I should really give the scientist some credit, but I think this is a funnier outcome
Or there was plastic stuck to the machines used to sample and it contaminated the area during sampling. Or there was plastic in the lab during testing. Though potentially those should have been ruled out by testing a blank sample and a control sample of just the ‘empty’ sampling equipment.
I feel like there could be a few rational explanations to that, but I want someone smarter than me to tell me what exactly they could be…
If the sediment is <100% consolidated, then water could be carrying microplastics down through the layers, even through microscopic voids.
clothes
I’m guessing this is referring to synthetic fibers like acryllic and polyester?
Correct.
AFAIK, those ‘fleece’ type materials are directly made from recycled PET (like water bottles).
So about those T-shirts and hoodies prodly saying they’re made from 100% recycled plastic…
“microfiber” is really terrible.
They just found it in rain so there is no escape.
Haha I drink filtered tap water. Wanna bet that the filter will put more microplastics into my drinking water?
I have 5 gallon plastic jugs of water delivered, I wonder if that’s worse or better water than my potentially lead water from my faucet.
Just eat plastic-eating bacteria, problem solved
Mr. Stark I don’t feel so good
You forgot that Japanese scientists found out that microplastics are in clouds ☁️ aswell.
I could totally look this up, but for the sake of conversation: what consequences does the presence of microplastics have? I honestly don’t know
That’s the problem, we don’t really know yet.
And at this point finding a control group that isn’t contaminated is incredibly difficult if not impossible
Maybe we can get one of those people living completely isolated from society.
Even uncontacted tribes in the middle of nowhere islands probably have microplastics in their blood too. After all, they likely are eating animals that have microplastics. Stuff like this always gets worse the higher up the food chain you get, and humans are pretty high up.
With the amount of trash in the ocean, I wouldn’t be surprised if even an uncontacted tribe is running around in mismatched sandals and drinking out of old plastic bottles.
A guy I watch on YT has done a couple of short shipwreck survival challenges on some of the little islands off the coast of Australia. He starts barefoot and with no supplies and within an hour of scavenging the beach he has a pair of sandals, a half dozen bottles, both plastic and glass, and usually some fishing line or rope.
name of the channel?
RoKKiT KiT
He’s a laid back Aussie dude that does mostly ocean-based solo beach camping catch and cooks.
I’m on the other side of the world, half a days travel from the ocean, so his channel provides me an interesting and often beautiful perspective of a life very different than my own.
Some might say the top, if you will.
If it’s actually present in clouds their water will be contaminated as well. They probably have a way lower exposure.
So, the big stink about BPA
(a type of plastic)e:below is that it interferes with certain hormones in the body. I don’t know for sure what the concerns are with other microplastics, but I do remember reading they strongly suspect they can do similar things to our endocrine systems, as well as being probable carcinogens.No. BPA is not a type of plastic. It is a compound used to manufacture plastic.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bisphenol_A
As to the health effects, this is from the wikipedia article:
Concern is mostly related to its estrogen-like activity, although it can interact with other receptor systems as an endocrine-disrupting chemical.
My entire life I’ve watched girls get breasts at a younger and younger age…
Something creepy about the above statement…
Anyway: They are linking microplastics to infertility in men. It’s messing with the little swimmers. Figure the same would happen in most species.
Yeah, should have said ‘noticed’ rather than ‘watched’
Nah, they keep getting younger and younger, the girls stay the same age. Benjamin Button gets away with being creepy because reasons 😂
“Fertility rate and motility in sperm is down 50% and we don’t understand why!”
There was an article i saw on here a few weeks ago about a study linking microplastics to changes in the brain that have been associated with dementia.
Mostly we have no idea though.
i have zero idea and this is a guess
maybe it could clog up systems if theres too much build up coz it doesn’t get broken down or smth
like fish dying and having plastic shit clogging up their organs when cut open
I’m sure pro-life people will get right on this
Plan B = recycling? 🤔
A pipe dream invented by DuPont to make people not feel bad about throwing away plastic!
Good reminder
What are the long term effects of microplastics on human body?
As far as we know: almost nothing, but possibly anything. We don’t have an understanding of the effects. So far scientists have said that it could cause lung irritation if airborne, and may have some effect on hormones in the body.
Read: https://www.sciencenews.org/article/microplastics-human-bodies-health-risks
I think theres no hard evidence that its outright causing stuff, but there’s a lot of studies on some correlations. some involve phthalates messing with the male hormones and genitalia for offspring
The problem is that it’s extremely difficult to tease out what the impact is when pretty much everyone is exposed to it and has it in their system. Are there connections between these chemicals and autism or cancer? We are just starting to see the preliminary data on the subject.
For me it’s a matter of not being interested in waiting to find out 30 years down the road. My personal belief is that there is no such thing as food safe plastic and especially not when it’s heated or stored for long periods. I believe that there is and will continue to be a concerted effort to downplay any uncovered impact and to ensure till the last second that no steps are taken to regulate the billion dollar plastics/ manufacturing industry. The spice must flow just as the plastics must flow.
Maybe that’s a bit too far in the conspiracy theory vein but name a more iconic duo than large corporations and covering up known flaws and risks for the sake of profit. If nothing else I do not think you lose anything by shifting to glass and certain metals for cooking and storing food. And steps have to be taken to minimize exposure to food packaging that is sprayed with pfas. Looking at you, literally all fast food packaging.
Couple these revelations with what we know about hyper processed foods and it’s no wonder why so many Americans are dumb as Fuck and have so many health problems. We are being poisoned because of our insistence on convenience. We literally have great options for all of these things that are more sustainable and less toxic but we still can’t be inconvenienced by a paper wrapper on a hamburger that might end up a little wet on the ride home.
Of course even with all these steps there’s only so much one can do when you’re literally inhaling plastic from the atmosphere. But it’s certainly a move in the right direction.
I still maintain that The Jungle should be required reading in high school in the US, but I think it will never happen
The book is no doubt banned for causing CEOs to feel bad. Certainly can’t have that.
oh good so like the genophage but for humans
But we did it to ourselves and not some weird alien! Hooray!
1/1000 pregnancy viability may wipe humanity out rather quickly. Though at this point thats probably a favor for the world.
We can all find out together. Yay :)
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Ah, so we are bringing back bloodletting
Aye, good for the donor. Presumably not bad for the recipient either, since needing blood means they already lost some so worst case they just have constant levels of microplastics.
i mean like…whatever? it’s not like i know what it feels like to not have microplastics inside me, so…whatever? nothing i can do. nothing anyone can do. would i be in a better mood or something?
Maybe the microplastics even improve your wellbeing
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no no that’s the macroplastics yer thinking of
Humans had one purpose in the universe - to produce plastic. Mission accomplished.
Coal and petroleum baybee
Ah, the classic “humans are a joghurt culture to produce plastics for the overlords” hypothesis
What if the perceived increase in numbers of androgenous and trans people has a chemical basis: chemicals from plastics interfering with the endocrine system.
Actually, this is genius. Get the right wing climate change deniers to fight climate change by telling them that microplastics will turn their Chad of a son into a sissy girl
Haha, somebody go post this information in some right wing forums!
Are micro plastics responsible for your micro penis? Are they responsible for those trans people you seem to be so afraid of? Stop microplasitcs before they stop America from becoming the greatness that it never wasn’t!
they’d just inject trans women with extra testosterone to “cure” them, making them all commit suicide.
This has “they turn the freaking frogs gay” energy
Funny enough, I think that all started with a study about hormone mimicking plastics.
Holy shit, how is this not a super high priority right now? Not because of trans people but the conclusion that microplastics interfere with hormones seems super fucked up
Pay attention to the “What if” part of this post. There is not enough evidence in this study to support the hypothesis.
that’s far from what the study says. there is no research on the effects of plastic chemicals in human beings cited in the study, the vast majority of the data is in rats and mice. saying that its responsible for trans people requires some very large leaps of logic that aren’t supported by the data or the conclusion of the study.
we have a great deal of anthropological evidence that other cultures conceive of sex and gender in wildly differing ways, both through history and in the modern era. gender identity is a complex social and cultural phenomenon, not some essential trait of the human body with a basis in endocrine function. maybe i’m just sensitive to this shit, but i can’t see somebody making a claim like this without just fundamentally misunderstanding what being trans is.
I was reading What to expect before you’re expecting and it says to stay away from any food that comes in any kind of plastic, esp if the plastic container needs to be heated/re-heated.
It says when it gets into your blood stream your body thinks it’s estrogen.
The most fucked up part is the EPA says the risk is very low. Probably because plastics are literally everywhere, and banning them at this point would cause an economic catastrophe. Which it def would.
This is an article about BPAs, but they are just the tip of the iceberg of the phtalates - chemicals used to make plastic more durable.
What if the perceived increase in numbers of androgenous and trans people has a chemical basis
I’d be willing to wager it’s mostly due to it being safer to be “out” than it was just a few decades ago. Speaking as a 40-odd trans person, growing up in the 80’s meant a much higher chance of getting your ass kicked or worse by your “peers” if you stepped out of line when it came to gender expression. I’ve always been what I am now, it’s just that it’s been safe to actually do it “out loud”, at least for the past decade or so – that seems to be changing now that the right is radicalizing rapidly.
transgenderism has been a prominent aspect of virtually all human cultures dating back to the dawn of civilization. it wasn’t until the Victorian era and colonialism that it was demonized. it’s not some new phenomena caused by microplastics
Yeah, but it’s possible the chances of it occuring are increased with micro plastics. Kinda like how exposure to some chemicals used in plastics seems to increase the likelihood of a child having ADHD. It’s not the sole reason, nor are trans people new, but micro plastics might make trans people more common.
Current demographic information seems to suggest that transgender people are no more frequent than they have been historically, just more visible / likely to come out.
This. I’ve seen more people come out as a part of some minority in last several years than, say, in 2000s in general, and that’s not a time span during which any alleged and meaningful genetic or biological changes could play a role. It’s just a much better and safer time to come out compared to everything before.
Almost exactly the same kind of situation with mental illnesses such as Autism or ADHD, you see people scream that the rates are rising and trying to pin it on external factors without even considering that the medical diagnosis/process and tracking of all of that has consistently improved, it just makes sense we’d be seeing more examples as previously undiagnosed “weird” people are able to diagnosed.
mental illnesses such as Autism or ADHD
These aren’t really illnesses, though. Think of it as of being left- or right-handed - it’s your brain functioning in a different way, but not a pathological one.
Eh, they consider it a-typical, it’s basically considered a mental illness. “neurotypical”
Let me clarify to say, I don’t think there’s inherently anything actually “wrong” with non-neuotypical folks, I have ADD for sure and I know it’s definitely an impediment to myself in various aspects of my life in ways neurotypicals also experience from time to time, but not on a near constant basis like some of the population.
Like most things in life, it’s a sliding scale :p
Why, that could only mean that micro plastics have always been around. /s
Just wait until we starting using these plastic eating bacteria they’ve been working on
• ᴗ •
Hopefully they don’t shit micro plastic
They mostly shit CO₂, which thankfully doesn’t cause any problems.
I can’t decide if that’d be better or worse. On the one hand, CO2 fucks up the planet. On the other hand, microplastics fuck up the planet. CO2 is making our planet hotter and less hospitable, while microplastics may be causing a wide variety of issues related to the endocrine system, learning disabilities, cancers, etc.
Then again, there are temporary, albiet extreme, solutions to our climate problems that could be enacted fairly quickly if it came to it. Not that I think world leaders would, they’d generally be very expensive and potentially cause their own ecological issues, but they could be done. However, if we discovered microplastics are the cause of a significant amount of the world’s ills, it’d take a while to get rid of it all, even with plastic-eating bacteria.
Kinda defeats the entire purpose, wouldn’t it?
Because they will eat our flesh?
Can’t wait for random plastic to start rotting so you need to replace them even more frequently!
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FUCK YEAH MORE DISTRESSING MEMES
Piped is a privacy-respecting open-source alternative frontend to YouTube.
I’m open-source; check me out at GitHub.
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