Microplastics health concerns

Discussion in 'Science' started by Bowerbird, Mar 17, 2024.

  1. Bowerbird

    Bowerbird Well-Known Member

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    This is massively concerning given the amount of microplastics littering our modern environment.
    https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/microplastics-linked-to-heart-attack-stroke-and-death/

    Microplastics have even been found in breast milk

    https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2022/oct/07/microplastics-human-breast-milk-first-time
     
    Last edited: Mar 17, 2024
  2. Media_Truth

    Media_Truth Well-Known Member Past Donor

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    This is a huge issue. I watched a documentary on this, and one scientist said that we ingest enough plastics over a 10-year period, that it would be like eating an ocean buoy.

    buoy.JPG
     
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  3. Bowerbird

    Bowerbird Well-Known Member

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    The research is showing worse and worse news

    https://www.nature.com/articles/d41...ail&utm_term=0_b27a691814-68f5e9ceab-51847612

    upload_2024-3-19_18-2-51.jpeg

    This is not just an immediate issue it is a generational issue
     
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  4. FatBack

    FatBack Well-Known Member

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    I'm more concerned about the accumulation of lead from casting bullets but that is an activity for Old Men and it needs to be kept away from pregnant women and children.

    But none of us can keep ourselves away from micro plastics. You want to live in a modern world you have to live with modern problems.

    Or we can elect a government that can make us basically live as serfs and control our every actions?

    That's what we need..
     
  5. FreshAir

    FreshAir Well-Known Member Past Donor

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    Last edited: Mar 19, 2024
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  6. FatBack

    FatBack Well-Known Member

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    What do you mean? Cigarettes smell like cigarettes and they are not banned.
     
  7. FreshAir

    FreshAir Well-Known Member Past Donor

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    in many places they are, smoking one in your car in some parking lots, you will be fined

    but you are right, the word should have been "restricted", not "banned"
     
    Last edited: Mar 19, 2024
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  8. FatBack

    FatBack Well-Known Member

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    And it might be a little off topic but I think it might apply. These Vapes that people are doing...

    I myself smoke filterless cigarettes. I watched a girl walking down the road the other day puffing on a vape.... She was exhaling a cloud probably four times the size of a puff off of a cigarette and I thought to myself there is no damn way that can be better for you than smoking.

    The jury is still out on the long-term effects of vaping and I wouldn't want to be sitting there smoking those damn things myself.

    I bet people that do Vapes are inhaling microplastics
     
    Last edited: Mar 19, 2024
  9. Bowerbird

    Bowerbird Well-Known Member

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    Ok - if you want to live in an environment that is so polluted it is changing the sex of the kids, causing miscarriages, giving people diabetes and killing people before they are forty then that is your choice. Me? I have signed the petition by Greenpeace

    https://act.greenpeace.org.au/global-plastics-treaty
     
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  10. Bowerbird

    Bowerbird Well-Known Member

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    Cigarettes smell like **** so smokers - don’t bother to come to civilised countries we like our health. Smoking is all but banned completely here
     
    Last edited: Mar 19, 2024
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  11. Bowerbird

    Bowerbird Well-Known Member

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    They may be but it is the ingestion through eating fish and other contaminated foodstuff that is the worst.
     
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  12. 557

    557 Well-Known Member

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    Mmmm. That looks tasty! I’ve tried (with some success) to transition from plastic drinking water containers I use in the summer to glass. Plastic is just so handy and durable. :)
     
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  13. Bowerbird

    Bowerbird Well-Known Member

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    https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2854718/

    This is from 2009 and as a general rule I do not nd have not for many years used plastic bowls in the microwave or drink from a plastic bottle that has been in a hot car.

    And I just found this - looks like my reading for the next couple of days

    https://www.endocrine.org/topics/edc/plastics-edcs-and-health
     
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  14. Media_Truth

    Media_Truth Well-Known Member Past Donor

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    Just signed. Thanks for the info and the link!
     
  15. Media_Truth

    Media_Truth Well-Known Member Past Donor

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    Tough to get away from. Especially with foods. Whatever happened to the cornstarch-derived plastics? For some non-food items I was marketing, I chose cellophane instead of plastic. It's biodegradeable.
     
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  16. 557

    557 Well-Known Member

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    It’s out there but I think still a bit more expensive and harder to source than petroleum based. Something I haven’t looked into for a long time.

    3D printers commonly use PLA filaments but I don’t know if it’s sourced from renewables.

    @Bowerbird has researched this topic more than anyone. Do you know if all PLA is from renewables? I know sugar is a feedstock where corn isn’t a common crop.
     
  17. Bowerbird

    Bowerbird Well-Known Member

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    Not sure - not an expert on making the plastics I am more into the human impact. Thing is even “BPA free” plastics have phthalates that can mimic or disrupt body hormones - EDCs Endocrine Disrupting Hormones.

    We KNOW sperm counts are falling in men and we know EDCs can affect sperm count bit do we have a direct causal link - unfortunately not yet
     
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  18. 557

    557 Well-Known Member

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    So I read up a bit. Polylactic acid (PLA) plastics are all made from renewables. Typically corn or sugar cane or sugar beets. It’s essentially starch converted to lactic acid and then polymerized.

    It’s naturally phthalate and BPA free.

    In its original state it requires high temperatures to break down (biodegrade). But there are enzymes that can be added to the plastic food container or whatever that facilitates biodegradation at normal (room) temperatures.

    I’d be willing to bet phthalates are involved in a lot of modern first world physical and possibly mental health issues. Would be an interesting area of research for young bucks looking to make a difference in human health. :)
     
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  19. MiaBleu

    MiaBleu Well-Known Member

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    That is excellent. It is getting hard to buy cigs in my current area.
    But back to topic...microplastics are a clear and present danger.
     
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  20. Bowerbird

    Bowerbird Well-Known Member

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    Given the effect on sex hormones they may be behind the rise in transgenderism. So Alex Jones is t least partially right - Frogs are turning gay!
     
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  21. Media_Truth

    Media_Truth Well-Known Member Past Donor

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    One of the first thread I've seen with no naysayers. You'd think if this is a unanimous opinion, regardless of political ideology, that something would be getting done. Sounds like a movement that needs a leader!
     
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  22. Bowerbird

    Bowerbird Well-Known Member

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    My fear is that this will end like the climate change issue - big companies will start a disinformation campaign to block actions that would potentially eat into profits. We know that playbook - we saw it with the Tobacco industry, we have seen it with the fossil fuel industry and many many many of the issues around plastics are from use of plastic made from fossil fuels. 557 has researched alternatives and there are alternatives. Australia has banned plastic straws - and yes I too hate the replacement straws that stick to your lips - they almost make you want to throw the straw away and drink straight from the cup! We have banned, well, restricted, plastic bags, we are recycling milk bottles and ocean waste into bin liner bags but there is just so much more we could do. My favourite peeve is extraneous and useless plastic packaging. Why do we get a fingernail sized doodad inside a plastic sheet that is larger than an iPad and so thick you need a chain saw to open the stinking thing!
     
  23. Media_Truth

    Media_Truth Well-Known Member Past Donor

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    It definitely needs more publicity. We need Pierce Brosnan back:

     
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  24. Jack Hays

    Jack Hays Well-Known Member Past Donor

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    Plastic bags help lower emissions.
    Shock Findings: Plastic Shopping Bags Cause Around Four Times Less ‘Carbon’ Emissions than Paper Substitutes

    BY CHRIS MORRISON

    If green activists truly worried about atmospheric greenhouse gases (GHG) such as carbon dioxide, they would bring back plastic shopping bags tomorrow. But they wouldn’t – the whipped up plastic scare has been too useful a tool to batter people into accepting the relentless drive to embrace inferior products and technologies. The acceptance of reduced lifestyle choices, and the unlimited chance for middle class activists to virtue signal, is part of the all-important collectivisation under the planned Net Zero project. But now a recent science paper has revealed that in 15 out of 16 applications of plastic covering 90% of global volume, the alternatives actually produced more greenhouse gases. . . . .
     
  25. Media_Truth

    Media_Truth Well-Known Member Past Donor

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    How does bringing your own tote stack up? That's the only way to shop, as far as I'm concerned.
     
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