this post was submitted on 25 Dec 2024
45 points (97.9% liked)

Progressive Politics

1209 readers
921 users here now

Welcome to Progressive Politics! A place for news updates and political discussion from a left perspective. Conservatives and centrists are welcome just try and keep it civil :)

(Sidebar still a work in progress post recommendations if you have them such as reading lists)

founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
 

There is no one factor that causes autism — or explains its growing prevalence. Researchers are seeking explanations for the surge. Here are some possibilities.

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] Windex007 10 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (3 children)

The typical human has the same amount of plastic in their brain as there is in a credit card as a result of the relatively newly ubiquitous presence of plastic nanoparticles in our environment.

Frankly I'd be shocked if jamming a credit card into a human brain wouldn't cause some measurable difference to how the brain operates.

Edit: I guess the specific reference of a credit card is still undergoing peer review! There are many published papers showing polystyrene in the frontal cortex, though.

[–] 8baanknexer 1 points 1 day ago (1 children)
[–] Windex007 1 points 1 day ago

That link says we don't EAT that much plastic per week.

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/article/2024/aug/21/microplastics-brain-pollution-health

This is saying that our brains are at this point 0.5% plastic by weight.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 day ago

That is figuratively no, the amount. I do think microplastics are probably the new lead and asbestos. Future generations will be like: “WTF, how did they ignore that”.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 day ago

I've heard this too, but I have only seen news articles about this...are there any other sources that confirm this, say, like a research paper or a fact-check group?