I saw today that they have found that over 80% of the microplastics in the ocean are from automobile tires.
You forgot that Japanese scientists found out that microplastics are in clouds ☁️ aswell.
What if the perceived increase in numbers of androgenous and trans people has a chemical basis: chemicals from plastics interfering with the endocrine system.
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
This has “they turn the freaking frogs gay” energy
Funny enough, I think that all started with a study about hormone mimicking plastics.
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.
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.
microplastics made me bimbo-brained
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.
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.
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
Why, that could only mean that micro plastics have always been around. /s
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’ve been reading the wikipedia article, not through all of it yet.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microplastics
Some highlights:
Bottled water has much higher microplastics content than tap water.Coral can ingest microplastics
Waste water treatment plants filter out most (but not all) microbeads into sludge. Some places use that sludge as fertilizer for farms.
Microplastics are in stuff you would not guess. Paper coffee cups have a plastic liner. Clothes put off large amounts of microplastics when washed. Tires put off microplastics. Some exfoliants and other cosmetics contain microplastics as microbeads.
Haha I drink filtered tap water. Wanna bet that the filter will put more microplastics into my drinking water?
clothes
I’m guessing this is referring to synthetic fibers like acryllic and polyester?
AFAIK, those ‘fleece’ type materials are directly made from recycled PET (like water bottles).
So about those T-shirts and hoodies prodly saying they’re made from 100% recycled plastic…
They just found it in rain so there is no escape.
I have 5 gallon plastic jugs of water delivered, I wonder if that’s worse or better water than my potentially lead water from my faucet.
Just wait until we starting using these plastic eating bacteria they’ve been working on
• ᴗ •
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?
Because they will eat our flesh?
Can’t wait for random plastic to start rotting so you need to replace them even more frequently!
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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
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It’s in plants too unfortunately.
Does that make them a cyborg?
Or recyclable trash
The rate of plastic trash and especially car treat related microplastic dust blown everywhere is only going up no matter what we know about it.
Just eat plastic-eating bacteria, problem solved
Mr. Stark I don’t feel so good
What are the long term effects of microplastics on human body?
We can all find out together. Yay :)
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
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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.
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
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.
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.
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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.
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Yeah, they’ll be in wild animals and nonhuman fetuses too FFS
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What about Macroplastics!?
Where you stuff your LEGO is your business