Humans had one purpose in the universe - to produce plastic. Mission accomplished.
Ah, the classic “humans are a joghurt culture to produce plastics for the overlords” hypothesis
Coal and petroleum baybee
😃 scientists genetically engineer a new bacteria that can digest plastics
😨 the bacteria escaped containment and is spreading prodigiously
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.
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
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.
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.
Im always doing a bit
solid ethos. respect.
Grey goo is the future
Like a giant garbage disposal of dolphins?
Does that make them a cyborg?
Or recyclable trash
What about Macroplastics!?
Where you stuff your LEGO is your business
What are the long term effects of microplastics on human body?
We can all find out together. Yay :)
Donating blood (and plasma?) has been shown to reduce microplastics and PFAs in the human body/blood.
I believe a key point being any type of donation that parts are not returned to your body afterwords.
So, being a blood donor can actually have some positive health effects.
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.
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
oh good so like the genophage but for humans
1/1000 pregnancy viability may wipe humanity out rather quickly. Though at this point thats probably a favor for the world.
But we did it to ourselves and not some weird alien! Hooray!
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.
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
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.
Nah, they keep getting younger and younger, the girls stay the same age. Benjamin Button gets away with being creepy because reasons 😂
Yeah, should have said ‘noticed’ rather than ‘watched’
“Fertility rate and motility in sperm is down 50% and we don’t understand why!”
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.
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
What if the perceived increase in numbers of androgenous and trans people has a chemical basis: chemicals from plastics interfering with the endocrine system.
Oh God was Alex Jones right?
He was somewhat lol, but of course uses the facts to twist it into a different narrative entirely, that’s what he do.
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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.
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.
Why, that could only mean that micro plastics have always been around. /s
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
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!
Most right wingers seem to be against polluting nature and ocean though, its the co2 stuff thats a harder sell
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.
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.
This has “they turn the freaking frogs gay” energy
Funny enough, I think that all started with a study about hormone mimicking plastics.
microplastics made me bimbo-brained
The guy that warned from using lead on gas was shamed and made fun of so much he off’d himself.
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Hour long video.
TLDW?
Check this link : https://www.summarize.tech/youtu.be/vocvz6N6faI?si=kRRqd6rjVb1Mu0xf
Or if you’re lazy :
00:00:00 - 01:00:00 In this YouTube video titled “Microplastics, Public Health Myth or Menace,” the speaker presents a balanced perspective on the growing concern over microplastics. They acknowledge the global issue of plastic waste but highlight that the majority of plastic waste is found in landfills rather than the oceans. The speaker argues that the current understanding and potential risks associated with microplastics are based on preliminary data, and presenting them as a major threat without concrete evidence could damage their reputation. However, the speaker also acknowledges the presence of microplastics in various environmental sources, and while the evidence regarding their impact on human health is limited, more comprehensive studies are needed to determine their effects. The speaker concludes by emphasizing the need for responsible waste management practices and the consideration of the chemicals carried by microplastics in assessing their potential impact on health.
01:00:00 - 01:00:00 The speaker raises concerns about the inconsistency in addressing the issue of microplastics, highlighting how some bans were implemented without evidence of health impacts, while other important issues are overlooked. They stress the global need to address waste and caution researchers to be careful in presenting their findings to avoid misleading the public. They emphasize the importance of influencing politicians to take immediate action and integrate solutions into larger agendas. The speaker concludes by emphasizing the urgency of the problem and the need for long-term responses.
We have absolutely no idea what (if anything) micro plastics will do now that they’re small enough to get through the blood brain barrier. Could be harmless, could be like how led was seemingly innocuous
Yes and it is being thoroughly investigated, as it should be. But so far nothing has been found, so sensationalism is only detrimental as:
- it takes away focus from materials that have actually been found to be harmful
- puts public pressure on researchers, and if they don’t find something quick it might be the end of the whole field, and then they might have difficulties funding research on future polymers
- builds up anxiety about something we can’t do anything about (the plastics are there and they’re here to stay for a while)
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Yeah, they’ll be in wild animals and nonhuman fetuses too FFS
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Yeah, I thought that’s what you were insinuating with the /s
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
no no that’s the macroplastics yer thinking of
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Well what do you expect us to do about it; completely change our way of living as we know it and have been choosing not to do so for the past 50 years?
not using plastic things one time and then throwing them away would be a good start…
Kinda sounds like you’re infringing on my rights, commie.
/s
Just wait until we starting using these plastic eating bacteria they’ve been working on
• ᴗ •
Can’t wait for random plastic to start rotting so you need to replace them even more frequently!
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Because they will eat our flesh?
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?
Might wanna stop force-feeding animals plastic and killing them and eating their bodies. idk just a suggestion.
It’s in plants too unfortunately.
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It’s soo depressing that it’s not available in my country. Truly marvelous.
New cyberpunk future just dropped:
Companies mimic existing console terms and agreement whereby their products are still their property despite you having bought them, and can now demand ownership over fetuses as they are now at least 1% company property. WW3 will be between the Applings, Googlers and Amazonites. Personally I’m rooting for Amazon because out of those three they’ve already gone the cool route with how they’ve mentally roboticized their work force; exchanging parts of their bodies with actual machine parts is just the next logical step and will help them do their jobs better and faster. The Googlers will still have an edge because they know where everything is, and they know how it all works. The Applings? They’re the scrappy underdogs just like they are today; no one thinks Apple can keep up and they keep dicing with death but keep winning even though the odds have been stacked against them; Apple’s the plucky underdog it’s always been, coming up with brand new gadgets every single time.
Honestly corporations keep showing us a brighter and cooler future! If we’re lucky, blade runner and cyberpunk 2077 will just be the tip of the iceberg.
The secret in all this though? Everyone cuts a deal with the Nestlers; they’ll own all the water, and that water? Primary source of fetus microplastics; you want to tip the tides in favor of a new legion of Applings in twenty years? You grease the Nestler palm.
