this post was submitted on 27 Feb 2024
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Scientists express concern over health impacts, with another study finding particles in arteries

Microplastics have been found in every human placenta tested in a study, leaving the researchers worried about the potential health impacts on developing foetuses.

The scientists analysed 62 placental tissue samples and found the most common plastic detected was polyethylene, which is used to make plastic bags and bottles. A second study revealed microplastics in all 17 human arteries tested and suggested the particles may be linked to clogging of the blood vessels.

Microplastics have also recently been discovered in human blood and breast milk, indicating widespread contamination of people’s bodies. The impact on health is as yet unknown but microplastics have been shown to cause damage to human cells in the laboratory. The particles could lodge in tissue and cause inflammation, as air pollution particles do, or chemicals in the plastics could cause harm.

Huge amounts of plastic waste are dumped in the environment and microplastics have polluted the entire planet, from the summit of Mount Everest to the deepest oceans. People are known to consume the tiny particles via food and water as well as breathing them in, and they have been found in the faeces of babies and adults.

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[–] FlyingSquid 100 points 8 months ago (4 children)

So will microplastics be the new leaded gasoline? Turning every kid into an idiot or an asshole or both?

[–] mipadaitu 68 points 8 months ago (2 children)

This is where we find out that 4chan and Joe Rogan were caused by microplastics.

[–] [email protected] 20 points 8 months ago

No, those ones are the lead I think.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 8 months ago

Joe Rogan is caused by head trauma and HGH

[–] [email protected] 25 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago) (1 children)

Probably just lots of cancers faster.

The real thing to watch for is if cancer rates just occur closer to retirement age anyways. Cause that could boost the economy.

[–] qooqie 7 points 8 months ago (1 children)

Yup and we already see more colon cancer in young adults which makes sense if we’re eating microplastics. Obviously there’s a lot more that goes into it, but microplastics surely aren’t helping

[–] ripcord 4 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago)

Is there actual data saying that it increases cancer risk? Everything I'm finding says that we have no studies (or enough data) to say what the health impacts actually are.

Edit: I see some of the sources listed further down. Going through them.

One thing I did find while searching - plastics in bottled water are 20x higher than tap water. Yet another reason to quit buying so many damn plastic bottles

[–] [email protected] 6 points 8 months ago (1 children)

Turning? Not sure if you've been paying attention, but kids these days can't even read.

[–] [email protected] 29 points 8 months ago (1 children)

That would be due to underfunded public schools and making Teaching jobs pay part time wages.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 8 months ago

Car tires are a major source of microplastics, making up 28% of the microplastics found in the ocean.

So yeah, cars fucking us over again. It seems to correlate to cancer and IBS, so not as much making us in to boomers more just killing us and making our lives less pleasant. Thanks again auto industry.

[–] [email protected] 83 points 8 months ago (2 children)

It is crazy that it has become this much of a problem and it feels like it is on almost no one's radar. Is this even reversible at this point? I assume not, but that it can definitely get worse.

[–] [email protected] 27 points 8 months ago (3 children)

Good news, it is! Unlike other bad stuff like heavy metals, microplastics and PFAS are naturally eliminated from the body, just very slowly. Procedures like dialysis, or even just giving blood, can remove them more quickly.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 8 months ago (1 children)

So giving blood doesn't really remove the micro plastics so much as transfer them to someone else who is in rven worse shape than you are

[–] [email protected] 8 points 8 months ago

Yeah but them needing blood is a bigger problem than having microplastics.

Also if it's replacing blood lost, then they'll probably break even on microplastics content.

[–] Clubbing4198 3 points 8 months ago (1 children)

do you have any references to this and their methodology?

[–] [email protected] 1 points 8 months ago (1 children)

For which part? I can link some studies, but you'd probably be more satisfied with the results you get by searching on your own.

[–] Clubbing4198 1 points 8 months ago (1 children)

mainly curious about the dialysis. i feel the passive elimination would vary based on demographic, intake, diet etc. i guess you would just need something semipermeable that traps the plastics. trapping plastic with plastic

[–] [email protected] 1 points 8 months ago

Well now I can't find whatever I was looking at that said it was effective. But I did find this: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2666821123000868

Obviously, hydrogen peroxide would not be a good idea in hemodialysis, but some of the other reactants might be useful.

Since microplastics are a bit larger than blood cells (plastics 10-50um vs white blood cells 12-15 and red 7.5-8.7um) theoretically they could be filtered by a 15um water filter to get most of them.

[–] FenrirIII 1 points 8 months ago

Unless we can somehow develop microbes or bacteria that can safely consume and remove these plastics within our bodies, this is forever

[–] [email protected] 56 points 8 months ago

What the article doesn't explain is that this is a good trade off. Even though we have microplastics in our bodies in return we're creating a ton of value for share holders.

[–] homesweethomeMrL 23 points 8 months ago

Thisisfine.jpg

[–] ABCDE 10 points 8 months ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 11 points 8 months ago

And is so plentiful in fish that I once heard a statistic being thrown around when I worked in the industry that somewhere around 2-5% of the fish we eat annually is plastic. That's a nice chunk of plastic every 20-50 bites.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 8 months ago