We've obviously seen a lot of studies about the proliferation of microplastics. They seem to be in practically everything and everyone to an almost cellular level. Are there any modern studies or even just hypotheses for what the actual effects are? Has it just not been long enough for us to gather data?
The problem might be that if they're everywhere there's no control group without them, so it's hard to say if an effect is actually caused by microplastics or not.
In a laboratory setting, presumably you could makeq conditions clean enough to grow a cell culture that is free from micro plastics. But that isn't going to tell you much about systemic effects like in an organ or body.
Maybe you could breed mice in a clean room. Not sure what the generational half life of microplastics is..
The alternative you could probably test is levels of Microplastics. Grow a number of colonies with varying levels of microplastics and compare between them.
Yes. Dr Shanna Swan wrote a book about it called Countdown. She's proven that it is having a direct impact on our reproductive system as an endocrine disruptor.
The problem is that plastics are not stable. They are constantly breaking down and releasing an array of chemicals in the process. Great, now they’re inside us too. Oh. They’re inside everything else too so yay?
There are a lot of gastro surgeons and specialists that are running long term studies on increased stomach and colon cancer rates in relation to microplastics. A few of them have come out and started recommending colonoscopies starting at 40 instead of 50.
Between the microplastics, the pfoas and other fluorine based stuff from 3M, and the lead in fuel that airplanes are still allowed to use, and the lack of a more natural diet, it's no wonder we're all so screwed up.
It's worse than "allowed" to use, in the US it's more like "required to use". Newer engines that work on unleaded gas exist, and even some older engines are perfectly capable on unleaded gas. However, the FAA has to test and approve each part that goes on an airplane, and it's a ton of work to do that for every type of airplane engine. Unless the government subsidized such testing and paid for unleaded fuel tanks to be installed all over the country, it's unlikely to change anytime soon.
well that and being told for your entire life that you could be anything you want and do anything with your life that you chose as long as you worked hard (oh, and voted for tax cuts for the rich).
This is why we've never seen or heard aliens out in the universe. Every civilization burns itself out faster than they can solve long distance space travel. Maybe the Great Filter is just the inherent nature of sentient beings. It would make me feel better to know that every other civilization to ever exist in the universe also destroyed itself in this manner, but maybe we are a special level of stupid.
We've been pretty up ourselves about it though, a blank flag waving on the moon will be cold comfort for the burning remains of our civilisation. I could imagine this being the inevitable end to an intelligent species, smart enough to destroy itself but dumb enough to destroy itself.
What I love about this is the canceling out of the unholy intersection of ideas in the Republican Party of forced birth and environmental deregulation.
All the evil billionaires need a plethora of desperate people so the veil of the Christian sanctity of life thing gets trotted out and behind the scenes they want maximum profit so they tear down any limit or mitigation of the collateral damage their industries cause, and wouldn’t you know it: turns out you can’t have both things. Poetic justice, really. Almost a valid argument for the existence of an Illuvitar like being.
The human testicles had a plastic concentration almost three times higher than that found in the dog testes: 330 micrograms per gram of tissue compared with 123 micrograms. Polyethylene, used in plastic bags and bottles, was the most common microplastic found, followed by PVC.
Check all the ingredients of everything you eat and drink. You bathe with, you wash dishes with, you wash clothes with, you use for lawn care etc.. Even medications are forms of slow kill. All of which is approved by governing bodies like the FDA.