3 ms·
Form matters a great deal. Microplastics of PTFE, particularly fibers, provoke the same sort of response as similar asbestos, for the same reasons. A smooth PT
by ncmncm 4y ago
Form matters a great deal.
Microplastics of PTFE, particularly fibers, provoke the same sort of response as similar asbestos, for the same reasons. A smooth PTFE surface, e.g. in a surgical implant, evokes a completely different response.
So, no: PTFE can be safe, but is not necessarily. Convexity matters.
- ars 4y agoI'm going to need a source on that. PTFE is soft and not sharp, completely the opposite of asbestos which is both needle sharp and very hard and stiff. Not to mention no one is making microfibers of PTFE, the fibers are much larger that that.
- ncmncm 4y agoSorry, I read a paper on this 10 years back... The principle, as I recall, is that when a nanoparticle or nanofiber lodges somewhere, poking a membrane or anyway intruding, immune system cells attack it with increasingly caustic chemicals, trying to break it down. If it is too stable, they fail, but don't give up. It is this inflammatory response that underlies asbestos's toxicity. A smooth, locally flat surface does not, by itself, provoke that immune response, and chemically PTFE doesn't draw attention. But PTFE happily adopts any shape. So, maybe nobody makes PTFE microfibers or nanoparticles on purpose, but that doesn't mean there aren't any. The short story is that tests showing PTFE surgical implants don't evoke an inflammatory response do not tell you much about effects of PTFE in different circumstances. Likewise: people can wear metal jewelry for years, but that doesn't mean you can poke a knife through somebody with no effect. There was a recent report that those mesh tetrahedral tea bags each release literally billions of plastic nanoparticles into your tea. That cannot have been deliberate. I wonder if those have been banned or recalled yet...