5 ms·

If we know almost nothing about them, we have no idea if they are worse than microplastics and until we do, such headlines are just scaremongering for clicks.

nerdponx 3y ago
The whole point of the article is that what little we do know looks bad.
- gafage 3y ago
  I read it and it says that we have no idea of what they do.
  - itishappy 3y ago
    We have very little idea what they do, but the ideas we do have aren't good. From the article: > “If you go down to the nanoscale the properties of these materials are very different. They’re much more reactive,” he said. > A 2023 study showed that nanoplastics attracted clumps of a particular protein, called alpha-synuclein, that has been linked to Parkinson’s disease and dementia. This happens in cells in a dish and lab mice. > Earlier research in zebrafish found that nanoplastics can be passed from Mom to baby via the placenta and can cross the barrier to get into the brains of mice where they damage brain cells and alter the brain’s activity. > “I don’t know if I’d make a direct link to disease outcome but I will say that pathogenic bacteria really like plastics and so it kind of concentrates those bacteria that can lead to pathologies,” she said.
I_Am_Nous 3y ago
I don't have to know what kind of dust is leaking out of the Blendtec Blender to remember the classic words "X dust, don't breath this!" If microplastics are bad, nanoplastics can be reasonably assumed to be worse. The main thing I am thinking about is how a decaying plastic molecule might stay mostly unchanged as a microplastic, but once it becomes a nanoplastic the molecule itself could degrade into more toxic chemicals, perfectly sized to interact with our various receptors in our bodies.
- orwin 3y ago
  > If microplastics are bad, nanoplastics can be reasonably assumed to be worse It might be reasonable to assume that for the time being (precautionary principle), but in the end, most plastics are (C2H4)n. The form it can take is limited too, so while it could have effects on endocrine receptors, it would overall be limited. [edit] I'm dumb sorry, I get it, additives can be more complex and are unknown, I'll read the article next time :/ Still stand by my initial belief, but I shouldn't have been so dismissive.
petre 3y ago
Just wait until the Vice editorial team discovers that picoplastics are worse than nanoplastics.
- catchnear4321 3y ago
  fake news. (picoplastics taste like gravy.)
- anonymouskimmer 3y ago
  A picoplastic is also known as a carbohydrate, ketone, or whatever basic organic molecular building block. "the typical length of a carbon–carbon single bond is 154 pm" according to wikipedia, so typical plastics are necessarily at the nano-scale or larger, as a plastic is defined as a polymer of organic molecules, I believe.
jrockway 3y ago
Plastics are made out of ATOMS and atomic bombs are too. We should really be scared about femtoplastics!
- doubled112 3y ago
  Dihydrogen monoxide is present at almost all drownings! We'd better ban that too.
  - JumpCrisscross 3y ago
    Better get hydric acid and κ1-Hydroxylhydrogen(0) while we’re at it.
    - jowdones 3y ago
      Chlorine is deadly and was used as chemical weapon in WW1. Your table salt is half chlorine, thow it away immediately before it kills you!
      - deciduously 3y ago
        No need to panic, just dump out half and you're good to go.
  - jrockway 3y ago
    Everyone who's ever died has been full of that stuff! And there have been no controlled studies where subjects are isolated from it. Someone should look into that! What is the DHMO lobby hiding from us? ;)
- lemmsjid 3y ago
  I think atomic bombs is a good analogy for why it's alarming, actually. Humanity had a great and brief time putting radium in all sorts of things until they realized that it was doing something that penetrated deeply into and through the body at a micro scale. Humanity has also had a great time making different kinds of plastics, only to discover that they are also penetrating our body at a microscopic scale. While we don't have the smoking gun yet (i.e. radium jaw), it's at least scary to me, because platics are so pervasive across the population that if a smoking gun DOES emerge, it might be too late. I think the article itself brings up another good example: asbestos. I get all the jokes about dihydrogen monoxide killing people who breathe it, i.e. drowning, but this is fundamentally different, because we are discovering a thing that is interacting with our bodies in a way that was not historically present throughout evolution. Presumably if we'd evolved in the mist of nano plastics there wouldn't be much cause for worry, because a priori we'd have survived and thrived in its presence.
cryptonector 3y ago
Picoplastics Likely Worse than Nanoplastics; We Know Almost Nothing About Them
- brnt 3y ago
  We know that picoplastics cant exist, as that would make then smaller than their constituent atoms.

nerdponx 3y ago

The whole point of the article is that what little we do know looks bad.

gafage 3y ago
I read it and it says that we have no idea of what they do.
- itishappy 3y ago
  We have very little idea what they do, but the ideas we do have aren't good. From the article: > “If you go down to the nanoscale the properties of these materials are very different. They’re much more reactive,” he said. > A 2023 study showed that nanoplastics attracted clumps of a particular protein, called alpha-synuclein, that has been linked to Parkinson’s disease and dementia. This happens in cells in a dish and lab mice. > Earlier research in zebrafish found that nanoplastics can be passed from Mom to baby via the placenta and can cross the barrier to get into the brains of mice where they damage brain cells and alter the brain’s activity. > “I don’t know if I’d make a direct link to disease outcome but I will say that pathogenic bacteria really like plastics and so it kind of concentrates those bacteria that can lead to pathologies,” she said.

I_Am_Nous 3y ago

I don't have to know what kind of dust is leaking out of the Blendtec Blender to remember the classic words "X dust, don't breath this!" If microplastics are bad, nanoplastics can be reasonably assumed to be worse. The main thing I am thinking about is how a decaying plastic molecule might stay mostly unchanged as a microplastic, but once it becomes a nanoplastic the molecule itself could degrade into more toxic chemicals, perfectly sized to interact with our various receptors in our bodies.

orwin 3y ago
> If microplastics are bad, nanoplastics can be reasonably assumed to be worse It might be reasonable to assume that for the time being (precautionary principle), but in the end, most plastics are (C2H4)n. The form it can take is limited too, so while it could have effects on endocrine receptors, it would overall be limited. [edit] I'm dumb sorry, I get it, additives can be more complex and are unknown, I'll read the article next time :/ Still stand by my initial belief, but I shouldn't have been so dismissive.

petre 3y ago

Just wait until the Vice editorial team discovers that picoplastics are worse than nanoplastics.

catchnear4321 3y ago
fake news. (picoplastics taste like gravy.)
anonymouskimmer 3y ago
A picoplastic is also known as a carbohydrate, ketone, or whatever basic organic molecular building block. "the typical length of a carbon–carbon single bond is 154 pm" according to wikipedia, so typical plastics are necessarily at the nano-scale or larger, as a plastic is defined as a polymer of organic molecules, I believe.

jrockway 3y ago

Plastics are made out of ATOMS and atomic bombs are too. We should really be scared about femtoplastics!

doubled112 3y ago
Dihydrogen monoxide is present at almost all drownings! We'd better ban that too.
- JumpCrisscross 3y ago
  Better get hydric acid and κ1-Hydroxylhydrogen(0) while we’re at it.
  - jowdones 3y ago
    Chlorine is deadly and was used as chemical weapon in WW1. Your table salt is half chlorine, thow it away immediately before it kills you!
    - deciduously 3y ago
      No need to panic, just dump out half and you're good to go.
- jrockway 3y ago
  Everyone who's ever died has been full of that stuff! And there have been no controlled studies where subjects are isolated from it. Someone should look into that! What is the DHMO lobby hiding from us? ;)
lemmsjid 3y ago
I think atomic bombs is a good analogy for why it's alarming, actually. Humanity had a great and brief time putting radium in all sorts of things until they realized that it was doing something that penetrated deeply into and through the body at a micro scale. Humanity has also had a great time making different kinds of plastics, only to discover that they are also penetrating our body at a microscopic scale. While we don't have the smoking gun yet (i.e. radium jaw), it's at least scary to me, because platics are so pervasive across the population that if a smoking gun DOES emerge, it might be too late. I think the article itself brings up another good example: asbestos. I get all the jokes about dihydrogen monoxide killing people who breathe it, i.e. drowning, but this is fundamentally different, because we are discovering a thing that is interacting with our bodies in a way that was not historically present throughout evolution. Presumably if we'd evolved in the mist of nano plastics there wouldn't be much cause for worry, because a priori we'd have survived and thrived in its presence.

cryptonector 3y ago

Picoplastics Likely Worse than Nanoplastics; We Know Almost Nothing About Them

brnt 3y ago
We know that picoplastics cant exist, as that would make then smaller than their constituent atoms.