Why is it terrifying? Because it's "artificial"? Would you be more at ease with something "natural" as calcium being part of the plaque?
We've been living with plastics for decades. I don't see people dropping dead around me. Life expectancy around the world has been steadily growing, not the other way around. When exactly are these micro/nano plastics supposed to kill me? When I'm 90?
Hmm, many health markers have been declining. Fertility, hormone levels, many exotic cancers incidence rates and how often they occur in young people. You may need to just look a bit harder.
To this list I'd like to add hyper-palatable foods and possibly chemical dependence as the pharmaceutical/supplement business convinces more and more people that the latest magic substance will fix whatever ails you. Especially when the "ailment" is modern society being difficult to exist in and SSRI drugs are the only thing that seem to keep you "functional" in said society.
I say this as a Zoloft patient but there are endless supplements and drugs intended to make our lives better by some metric. "Not satisfied with life? Turn down your emotional intensity with mood stabilizers so you can continue going to your dead end job, just to barely make it every month!"
From my own personal experience and observations, I would add the mass prescription of SSRIs to the list in your comment’s parent. While it is true they _do_ help _some_ people, it seems they are very likely to cause a slew of new, long term problems for their medicatees, especially for those who are young.
Climate change will eventually cause us great problems but only if we survive long enough for that to happen. We are creating a toxic world. Chemicals, plastic, pollution, etc. will eventually do us great harm. There is no chance of mitigating this because profits are to be made.
Many of these problems don't exist in a vacuum though and some of these things are inter-related and fixing them goes hand in hand: plastics are so insanely cheap because they are sort of "waste products" of other petrochemical activities. If we shutdown some gas refineries and allow the cost of gas to go up, the costs of plastics will rise (and the markets will start buying other materials again).
As a culture we collectively don't want gas prices to go up because so many people rely on internal combustion engines for daily transportation. But it should be clear that many of the funds we are using to subsidize cheap oil and gas are the same funds still subsidizing cheap plastics.
(The same extends also to some of the other "toxic" chemicals polluting our environment: there are a bunch of chemicals in our economies that exist primarily to feed gas/oil refining, or as by-products of it such as working with plastics, that we'd collectively love to see a reduction in because of known harm to waterways or to soil.)
A lot of people claim that they want market solutions: one of the easiest market solutions to climate change is to start by forcing gas prices to rise. Remove subsidies. Set limits on new refinery construction. Set refining limits on existing plants. We could do it slowly and in a controlled fashion and give the market time to adjust, rather than waiting for the subsidized low prices to collapse on their own (as they did fifty years back in the 1970s oil crisis) and let the market panic all at once.
(We also don't have to do it in supply-side regulations if you think that's too heavy handed in manipulating the market. The old ideas of trying to bring externalities into the market more directly such as "carbon taxes" or "price ratcheting" [where once prices go above certain increments they are never allowed to drop again below those points] are still options. The point is: raise gas prices slowly somehownow [better yet, yesterday], don't wait for a bubble to burst or a crisis point to snowball.)
The tools to do it today are there if we just had the willpower to try it. Many people are addicted to cheap oil and gas and will kick and scream if we tried it, though.
Plastic is commonly found in canned food and drink. The foods are boiled inside plastic lined containers to ensure safety. Feed is sometimes ground up human waste aka moldy bread with plastic that's been ground up that the animals eat.
> feed is sometimes ground up human waste aka moldy bread with plastic that's been ground up that the animals eat.
This is 100% true. Feeding animals (mostly swine) garbage is usually perfectly legal and not really regulated. They claim to strip off packaging using automated processing but they are doing this on an industrial scale and no one is really watching them.
You probably get some plastic entering your bloodstream every time you get a flu shot, just from the disposable syringe. (Yes, it's IM not IV, but it will migrate.)
Some bits of plastic are very small far smaller I think than even that of a virus particle. Since nano-plastics are not alive I'd say there's nothing to stop it from entering through bowels if it's eaten.
There’s already a well known correlation between heart disease and gum disease. One of the hypothesis is that plaque creating bacteria from the mouth end up in the bloodstream and create plaque in the heart. It wouldn’t be a big stretch to suggest that microplastics could take the same route to reach the heart.
"Following 257 patients for 34 months, the researchers found nearly 60 percent of them had measurable amounts of polyethylene in plaques pulled from their fat-thickened arteries, and 12 percent also had polyvinyl chloride (PVC) in extracted fat deposits.
PVC comes in both rigid and flexible forms, and is used to make water pipes, plastic bottles, flooring, and packaging. Polyethylene is the most commonly produced plastic, used for plastic bags, films, and bottles, too."
Note however that chemists have gotten incredibly good at detecting tiny amounts of things, so an amount being "measurable" in no way implies that it is clinically significant.
PVC is also used in IV bags so I wonder how much of the contamination might have come from someone's surgical drip compared to them drinking from deteriorating water pipes at home.
The phenomenon of bad taste or smell is explained by the mechanism of volatile substances, released from saline when injected into the bloodstream and then eliminated by the respiratory system and thus detected by the patients in the air expired by the olfactory system.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2806387/#:~:tex....
The only time I experienced this is when I donated blood with an Alyx machine because it centrifuges the blood to separate the red blood cells to donate a double unit of RBC for trauma victims. It gives you back your plasma with some anticlotting agent and you taste/smell/feel it in your breath lol
This is an observational study that found a correlation but offers no insight into any mechanism of action for why these microplastics might cause blockages. I would be cautious about leaping to conclusions.
"A total of 304 patients were enrolled in the study, and 257 completed a mean (±SD) follow-up of 33.7±6.9 months. Polyethylene was detected in carotid artery plaque of 150 patients (58.4%), with a mean level of 21.7±24.5 μg per milligram of plaque; 31 patients (12.1%) also had measurable amounts of polyvinyl chloride, with a mean level of 5.2±2.4 μg per milligram of plaque."
- 21.7±24.5 μg per milligram is 0% to 4.62% by weight
- 5.2±2.4 μg per milligram is 0% to 0.76% by weight
This means that some patients' plaque contained up to 5% plastic.
PVC - from plumbing? It's hard to imagine other environmental sources. We're not drinking from PVC cups or eating from PVC plates. I personally would have expected to see particulates from food prep surfaces (teflon pans disintegrating during cooking) since ingestion is a likely path into the body.
Polyethylene - perhaps it's polyethylene terephthalate. Basically any soda or water bottle.
The article states that adverse events were “twice as likely”, but the abstract of the study says that the hazard ratio was 4.53 (95% CI 2.00–10.27). Can someone who is hopefully more statistically literate than me explain what seems like an obvious discrepancy here? Did they just take the lower bound of the confidence interval and report that?
In searching for a non-paywalled copy of the actual study, I found that other news outlets like CNN seem to be doing the same thing.
I've seen these videos on YouTube. If it's real why is nothing getting said. I'm a little confsed on whether to believe it. Would appreciate some reliable and factual source/report on this.
Basically, if you have high calcium in the walls of your arteries, you are at higher risk for heart attacks.
But the increased calcium is just a sign of damage to the artery. We don't say that calcium causes heart disease.
In the same way, already damaged arteries might be taking up more micro and nano plastics, and the presence of these in the arteries, is a sign of damage much like calcium, and not a cause.
Note, that microplastics are ubiquitous in the environment, so likely everyone has been exposed to them, which supports the hypothesis that this may be a sign and the cause of the disease.
Many comments accurately point out that causation is not yet established. Nonetheless, having plastic inside my body really seems bad. Is there anything I can do to reduce that? My guesses:
1. Avoid fast food
2. Don’t use plastic water bottles and food packaging
Barely anything you do will make a difference. Nearly everything you eat is transported or packaged in plastic. Your water pipes in your house might be PEX plastic. Its probably floating through the air and were breathing it right now.
In some ways it’s a relief if there’s little I can do to change that. Plus, I expect avoiding plastic is a micro optimization compared to eg eating healthier, keeping active, and so on.
I can't imagine anyone is going to recommend consuming more micro plastics; but as far as how to improve your overall wellbeing this is probably 15 or 16 on the list.
Most people would be better off focusing on getting control of their diet, exercise, sleep, and stress before fretting over this - imho; not a doctor.
You are breathing in plastic just as much as you are eating it.
Your washer and dryer - ensure your dryer is able to capture the lint it creates and your dryer ventilation is ducted somewhere you aren't breathing, not just venting into your household. Get a high quality air purifier with a high CADR rate and a decent filter, make sure when you clean the prefilter you aren't just breathing all the dust you create doing so. Use natural fibers rather than synthetic in clothing, bedding, bags, etc and when you do use synthetic be mindful of differences in various textiles and how easily and how much they shed.
Use a water filter in your water bottle like a Sawyer filter, Katadyn filter, or Epic water filter.
Stay away from any places that automobiles drive. The tires are partially plastic and wear away onto the road and into the air.
Perhaps consider starting a grassroots campaign a la the French Revolution targeted at the worst polluters, make sure you follow the French Revolution's playbook closely and don't miss any of the important aspects.
None of the above. The majority of microplastics come from tap water via car tire dust [0]. Reducing time spent driving, especially cycling near roads. Plastic water bottles and other food packaging aren't shedding microplastics nearly as much. Although reducing single use plastic is good for environmental reasons generally.
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[ 3.6 ms ] story [ 104 ms ] threadI'd be surprised if blood tests don't include a microplastics section in the coming years.
We've been living with plastics for decades. I don't see people dropping dead around me. Life expectancy around the world has been steadily growing, not the other way around. When exactly are these micro/nano plastics supposed to kill me? When I'm 90?
Nope, that's not the issue, and I'll happily take every vaccine going or even a plastic artificial heart if needs be.
It's terrifying because it doesn't break down. The calcium at least is more understandable.
* Forever chemicals
* Sedentary lifestyle
* State sponsored disinformation campaigns
* High fructose corn syrup
* Long covid
* Child gambling
* Hyper-addictive social media
Let's hope millenials and gen z can solve a few of these before it poisons generations.
I say this as a Zoloft patient but there are endless supplements and drugs intended to make our lives better by some metric. "Not satisfied with life? Turn down your emotional intensity with mood stabilizers so you can continue going to your dead end job, just to barely make it every month!"
As a culture we collectively don't want gas prices to go up because so many people rely on internal combustion engines for daily transportation. But it should be clear that many of the funds we are using to subsidize cheap oil and gas are the same funds still subsidizing cheap plastics.
(The same extends also to some of the other "toxic" chemicals polluting our environment: there are a bunch of chemicals in our economies that exist primarily to feed gas/oil refining, or as by-products of it such as working with plastics, that we'd collectively love to see a reduction in because of known harm to waterways or to soil.)
A lot of people claim that they want market solutions: one of the easiest market solutions to climate change is to start by forcing gas prices to rise. Remove subsidies. Set limits on new refinery construction. Set refining limits on existing plants. We could do it slowly and in a controlled fashion and give the market time to adjust, rather than waiting for the subsidized low prices to collapse on their own (as they did fifty years back in the 1970s oil crisis) and let the market panic all at once.
(We also don't have to do it in supply-side regulations if you think that's too heavy handed in manipulating the market. The old ideas of trying to bring externalities into the market more directly such as "carbon taxes" or "price ratcheting" [where once prices go above certain increments they are never allowed to drop again below those points] are still options. The point is: raise gas prices slowly somehow now [better yet, yesterday], don't wait for a bubble to burst or a crisis point to snowball.)
The tools to do it today are there if we just had the willpower to try it. Many people are addicted to cheap oil and gas and will kick and scream if we tried it, though.
Here are more ways you can ingest them. https://www.earthday.org/you-are-what-you-eat-plastics-in-ou... Apples and carrots were not expected to be the most contaminated.
This is 100% true. Feeding animals (mostly swine) garbage is usually perfectly legal and not really regulated. They claim to strip off packaging using automated processing but they are doing this on an industrial scale and no one is really watching them.
PVC comes in both rigid and flexible forms, and is used to make water pipes, plastic bottles, flooring, and packaging. Polyethylene is the most commonly produced plastic, used for plastic bags, films, and bottles, too."
Note however that chemists have gotten incredibly good at detecting tiny amounts of things, so an amount being "measurable" in no way implies that it is clinically significant.
Some of the other headlines:
>Radical Plan to Stop 'Doomsday Glacier' Melting to Cost $50 Billion
>Breakthrough: Model Organs Built With Cells From Living Fetuses
>Startling Exception Discovered to 200-Year-Old Law of Physics
do not say covid do not say covid do not say co...
</inside head>
- 21.7±24.5 μg per milligram is 0% to 4.62% by weight
- 5.2±2.4 μg per milligram is 0% to 0.76% by weight
This means that some patients' plaque contained up to 5% plastic.
PVC - from plumbing? It's hard to imagine other environmental sources. We're not drinking from PVC cups or eating from PVC plates. I personally would have expected to see particulates from food prep surfaces (teflon pans disintegrating during cooking) since ingestion is a likely path into the body.
Polyethylene - perhaps it's polyethylene terephthalate. Basically any soda or water bottle.
In searching for a non-paywalled copy of the actual study, I found that other news outlets like CNN seem to be doing the same thing.
See https://www.mayoclinic.org/tests-procedures/heart-scan/about...
Basically, if you have high calcium in the walls of your arteries, you are at higher risk for heart attacks.
But the increased calcium is just a sign of damage to the artery. We don't say that calcium causes heart disease.
In the same way, already damaged arteries might be taking up more micro and nano plastics, and the presence of these in the arteries, is a sign of damage much like calcium, and not a cause.
Note, that microplastics are ubiquitous in the environment, so likely everyone has been exposed to them, which supports the hypothesis that this may be a sign and the cause of the disease.
1. Avoid fast food
2. Don’t use plastic water bottles and food packaging
3. Store leftovers in glass
4. Eat less canned food (?)
Do any of those seem wrong? Any others to add?
I can't imagine anyone is going to recommend consuming more micro plastics; but as far as how to improve your overall wellbeing this is probably 15 or 16 on the list.
Most people would be better off focusing on getting control of their diet, exercise, sleep, and stress before fretting over this - imho; not a doctor.
Your washer and dryer - ensure your dryer is able to capture the lint it creates and your dryer ventilation is ducted somewhere you aren't breathing, not just venting into your household. Get a high quality air purifier with a high CADR rate and a decent filter, make sure when you clean the prefilter you aren't just breathing all the dust you create doing so. Use natural fibers rather than synthetic in clothing, bedding, bags, etc and when you do use synthetic be mindful of differences in various textiles and how easily and how much they shed.
Use a water filter in your water bottle like a Sawyer filter, Katadyn filter, or Epic water filter.
Stay away from any places that automobiles drive. The tires are partially plastic and wear away onto the road and into the air.
Perhaps consider starting a grassroots campaign a la the French Revolution targeted at the worst polluters, make sure you follow the French Revolution's playbook closely and don't miss any of the important aspects.
[0] - https://e360.yale.edu/features/tire-pollution-toxic-chemical...