• a lil bee 🐝@lemmy.world
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    5 months ago

    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?

    • AmbroisindeMontaigu@kbin.social
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      5 months ago

      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.

      • piecat@lemmy.world
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        5 months ago

        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.

        • aesthelete@lemmy.world
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          5 months ago

          I have a hypothesis that the proliferation of microplastics could be related to the rising cancer rates in young people nobody can yet explain.

          At very least, people should stop microwaving plastic containers.

        • theneverfox@pawb.social
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          5 months ago

          Don’t forget the food… And the water, and the water used to grow the food, etc. Creating a clean generation of even mice would be pretty difficult, it’s just everywhere, including most of the tools we’d use to make a cleanroom

      • SkyezOpen@lemmy.world
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        5 months ago

        Eh, humanity is overrated anyway. I’m not an extinctionist, but if we wipe ourselves out that would pretty funny and appropriate.

      • Aux@lemmy.world
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        5 months ago

        The only way to improve the climate is to dramatically decrease the human population. If plastics are good at it, I say USE MORE PLASTICS!!!

        • Kalothar@lemmy.ca
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          5 months ago

          This is just not true, it’s 4 companies driving almost alll climate impacting technologies, human population has been stabilizing across the board and human race is projected to peak at 10 billion.

          We have the resources to accommodate that number. It’s our technology, not the people and it’s fucking corporations.

            • Kalothar@lemmy.ca
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              5 months ago

              Ah yes, im sure you have many figures and sources of why that is a fact

              …and it’s totally not your opinion “that human bad and number must go down because I’m smart and cynical”

    • stoly@lemmy.world
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      5 months ago

      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?

      • Ragnarok314159@sopuli.xyz
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        5 months ago

        So an issue of correlation and causality.

        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.