At this point, Microplastics pollution should probably be included

2 years ago by SlippiHUD to c/climatecrisis

The average brain weighs 1300-1400 grams. If 0.5% of that is plastic by weight, your brain contains 6.5 - 7 grams of plastic. The average plastic credit card weighs 5 grams.

https://www.theguardian.com/...

Nawor3565 84 points 2 years ago

Jesus christ. I really thought that headline was exaggerated, but no, the brain samples they tested actually ended up being 0.5% plastic by weight. That's seriously disturbing, I really would have thought the blood-brain barrier would do a better job of keeping plastics out.

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SlippiHUD 52 points 2 years ago

For every kilometer you drive, your tires shed 1 trillion plastic particles. 78% of microplastics in the ocean are from tires.

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xkbx 41 points 2 years ago

What are you suggesting? That I stop peeling out of every parking lot and doing sick doughnuts!?

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GraniteM 38 points 2 years ago

What I'm saying is that we need to figure out to make tires out of some unholy bamboo/cheese composite.

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UltraGiGaGigantic 17 points 2 years ago

What if the roads were rubber and the tires were asphalt?

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SlippiHUD 8 points 2 years ago

Or just go back to unvulcanized rubber

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Boomkop3 6 points 2 years ago

But the oil products! We gotta make the oil billionaires more billions!

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UltraGiGaGigantic 12 points 2 years ago

10-4, rolling coal instead to impress potential sexual partners.

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explore_broaden 2 points 2 years ago

Maybe switching most of the transportation to steel tires on steel roads would help with this.

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SlippiHUD 2 points 2 years ago

Rail is the dream

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explore_broaden 2 points 2 years ago

Yeah

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paraphrand 39 points 2 years ago

Neuroplasticity makes so much more sense to me now.

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TheDorkfromYork 11 points 2 years ago

How does one become an anti plastic advocate? How do I target plastic specifically? Are some plastics better than others?

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WolfLink 9 points 2 years ago

It comes from car tires, single-use plastics teflon pans, and plastic food containers. Plastic items that are meant to last a long time aren’t shedding as much.

So if you want to reduce your microplastic contributions, avoid driving, avoid single-use plastics, don’t buy non-stick pans, and use glass food containers.

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stillwater 4 points 2 years ago

There's also carpeting, synthetic fibers from clothing, PVC and PEX piping for water supply, paint, etc. The one that gets me is the plastic Brita filter pitcher. This thing is supposed to clean my water.

It took us decades to get to this point and it'll take us more time to back out of it. And we have to start somewhere.

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explore_broaden 1 point 2 years ago

Do PVC and PEX pipes/multiple use plastic containers (like the Brita pitcher) actually release microplastics? I’m aware of evidence that PEX pipes leach chemicals (also very bad), but I can’t find anything showing they increase microplastics.

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OneWomanCreamTeam 2 points 2 years ago

While you're at it, make sure you're reducing your energy usage so you can stop climate change. Don't worry about Shell or ExxonMobil, I'm sure they're doing their best. And if we keep politely letting them know that climate change makes us sad I'm sure they'll give up their stranglehold on energy production so we can live happier, healthier lives! /S

In case it wasn't clear, treating huge environmental problems isn't a personal responsibility thing. We need legislation, and that isn't going to happen without drastic action.

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Raiderkev 3 points 2 years ago

Ya just kinda scream into the void on the Internet while the plastic industry bribes... Er... Lobbies congress into not giving a shit.

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floofloof 41 points 2 years ago

0.5% of our brains being plastic is pretty shocking.

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SlippiHUD 11 points 2 years ago

Agreed. Nevermind all the other places they've found plastic pollution in our bodies.

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AnnaFrankfurter 30 points 2 years ago

OK but what's the limit on that card

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UltraGiGaGigantic 15 points 2 years ago

Mine was declined and won't come out of the ATM.

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_bcron 11 points 2 years ago

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Boomkop3 3 points 2 years ago

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/...

and the study referenced there

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DNOS 10 points 2 years ago

Now that you have told me something kinda useless tell me how much longer is my shlong due to mycroplastic 🤔😏

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SlippiHUD 13 points 2 years ago

It's likely causing your erectile disfunction, even if it tripled it's size.

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UltraGiGaGigantic 7 points 2 years ago

If your erection lasts longer then 4 hours... Nice.

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StaySquared 5 points 2 years ago

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SlippiHUD 24 points 2 years ago

I'm saying the weight is, and it's not just my skull, it's everyone's skull. It's likely we're all experiencing those issues. It's also not up there in a single slab, but embedded throughout, which hopefully mitigates that issue.

A study under peer review claims those with dementia are more likely to have more plastic in their brains than the average person.

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StaySquared 12 points 2 years ago

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SlippiHUD 8 points 2 years ago

You're good, just wanted to be clear.

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dubyakay 8 points 2 years ago

The bigger question is, how do these microplastics pass the blood/brain barrier?

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geography082 4 points 2 years ago

“I'm a Barbie girl in a Barbie world”….

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polysics 4 points 2 years ago

Don't give Elon Musk any more ideas please

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UltraGiGaGigantic 4 points 2 years ago

A plastic existence.

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Thcdenton 3 points 2 years ago

PUSHING LITTLE CHILDREN

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Jarix 3 points 2 years ago

With your fully automatics!

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Fleur__ 2 points 2 years ago

I don't think this is true

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SlippiHUD 1 point 2 years ago

What information did I present that was untrue? I guess technically there's more plastic in your brain than required to make a plastic credit card.

Here's additional supporting research.

https://lemmy.world/comment/11941207

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Fleur__ 3 points 2 years ago

From my understanding of the study they used an unverified method on a small part of the brain to get the amount of plastic in the entire brain. Which can be misleading because if you only look at the parts of the brain that are microplastics, the brain is 100% plastic. There hasn't been widespread replication of the results yet either nor has the paper been peer reviewed.

I'm sceptical especially with the microplastic doomer narrative going around. As far as I know the danger of microplastics on the human body is yet to be determined. But it's definitely alarming I just don't think it's responsible to be saying there's a credit card in your brain.

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SlippiHUD 1 point 2 years ago

That first paragraph is fair enough.

I'd disagree that the microplastic doomer narrative is incorrect, the plastic in the brain is just the newest tidbit. It's already in our kldneys, testicles, placentas, blood, semen, livers and lungs. Even if this study is wrong (which I don't think it is, because its on trend with plastic contamination growth in the rest of our bodies) about how much plastic there is specifically in brains, there's still easily a credit cards worth in our bodies.

Microplastics are killing worms, it is contaminating soil, it is hurting crops, it is killing fish, and studied effects of plastic on other mammals are bad, to the point it seems pointless to confirm it hurts humans in specific ways before doing something about it.

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scarilog 0 points 2 years ago

Do you lack reading comprehension, or are you just in denial?

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Fleur__ 3 points 2 years ago

I gave the study a read. It's in preprint, it's yet to be peer reviewed and the method they used is atypical. Yeah I think disbelief is a pretty reasonable response since it's hard to imagine that much plastic wouldn't be making noticeable changes in behavior/physiology. But it's possible and the research seems rigorous

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scarilog 1 point 2 years ago

That's a pretty reasonable take 👍

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