4 ms·

This is probably one of the most prominent studies till date: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/38446676 https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/38446676 Microplastics a

by nextos 2y ago

This is probably one of the most prominent studies till date: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/38446676 https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/38446676 Microplastics and nanoplastics in atheromas and cardiovascular events. N Engl J Med. 390(10):900-910, 2024. Summary: People with artherial plaque that contains micro- and nano-plastics have a higher risk of death during the followup period. It's an observational study, sample size is not too big, but some findings look quite mechanistic suggesting causality, e.g. "electron microscopy revealed visible, jagged-edged foreign particles among plaque macrophages and scattered in the external debris". The effect size induced by microplastics on death risk also looks substantial. Personally, I think microplastics are a very important pollutant, and evidence of this will unfold during the next years. Sadly, it is extraordinarily hard to remove them from our environment. They are everywhere. For example, car tires shed lots of microplastics that end up in eggs or inside vegetables and plants, which absorb them from soil. Most liquids are packaged inside plastic, which is continuously leaking into the content. We should at least be measuring their levels and setting up maximum concentration thresholds in our food chain. We should go back to glass bottles, whenever possible. Suspended microplastics in the air are also a major concern. Plastics are great for certain applications, but we use them in places where they don't belong.

Dalewyn 2y ago
>We should go back to glass bottles, whenever possible. There are very good, very practical reasons we moved from glass (and metal and other materials) containers to plastic. Unless those factors are sufficiently addressed, plastic is here to stay. For those who haven't been keeping track or are just too damn young to know history, those factors include: * Weight. Glass and metal, and also other materials like ceramic and wooden containers, are heavy compared to plastic. This additional weight means it takes more energy to transport, meaning more costs in fuel and labor. * Fragility. This namely applies to glass; glass containers are fragile and they are very dangerous to handle if and when they break. Plastic containers are much more durable, and even if they break they are seldom as dangerous as broken glass. More broken containers also mean more goods lost to spillage, which in turn means additional cost to re-manufacture and re-ship. * Durability. Going along with the above, plastics are equal to metal containers in keeping contents and the outside world separated. This is incredibly important for ensuring food safety. * Contaminants. This applies primarily to metal containers, but also paper and sometimes ceramic. Metals leach into foods, this is mostly prevented with special coatings but it's not perfect and the coatings themselves are also contaminants that will eventually leach. Likewise paper containers which have coatings applied so liquids don't seep through, and sometimes ceramic containers to prevent leaching. We know these contaminants are bad, unlike microplastics where we still aren't conclusively sure. * Cost. Plastic is cheap compared to basically every other material we can make containers out of. This is a great boon to the consumer who ultimately ends up paying the most markup.
- nextos 2y ago
  Some EU supermarkets used to have a circular glass system where products were brought in bulk, and only canned in glass inside the shop, sometimes by the customer. Bottles were then returned after use, washed locally and reused many times. This looked fairly efficient. Restaurants and bars still have the same system here for e.g. Coca-Cola drinks, which come inside a glass bottle that has been reused several times. I'm not sure plastic is more efficient than reusing a glass bottle. Lots of yogurts are packaged in glass containers, and price seems average. I have also heard that plastic is rarely recycled, so it also sounds unsustainable from that perspective.
- Aeglaecia 2y ago
  in many ways it seems likely that this response was generated by chat gpt , I apologise if this was not the case
  - Dalewyn 2y ago
    Apologies accepted.
    - deleted 2y ago
      [deleted]
- vallassy 2y ago
  I agree with every point here, and they all make a lot of sense... yet most alcoholic beverages are shipped to the consumer in glass bottles, including even the cheapest beers. I have seen some drinks shipped in plastic, so it is possible to do, I wonder if glass packaging is a 'premium' thing. Though, if they can do it for cheap beer, then I'm sure they can do it for non-alcoholic drinks on scale.
  - Dalewyn 2y ago
    I've seen and had alcohol in plastic. They generally seem to do fine. But damn did it feel cheap in a bad way. Being cheap is obviously one of the reasons we use plastic containers, but the feeling associated with plastic alcohol is just plain irrationally bad.
hombre_fatal 2y ago
People don't even care about the atherosclerotic effect of saturated fats and lipoproteins that we've known for half a century.
- kelipso 2y ago
  What are you even talking about? Every single physical revolve around that with plenty of lectures from doctors and everyone talks about it all the time.
fy20 2y ago
> For example, car tires shed lots of microplastics that end up in eggs or inside vegetables and plants, which absorb them from soil. Last year I moved to a house with a greenhouse and started gardening, and was surprised not only by the amount of plastics used, but by the amount of UV unstable plastics used. - Previous owner used polyester string to tie up plants, which now just disintegrates whenever I touch it. I had to go out of my way to find jute twine. - I bought agricultural fabric to cover plants during spring. I left it at the top of the greenhouse over the summer to provide shade. By autumn it was disintegrating as it was not UV stable. Again I had to go out of my way to buy a UV stable polyester sheet that I will use now.
- nextos 2y ago
  True. The paradoxical thing is that even organic agriculture doesn't currently care much about microplastics given that they are not tested. It's a huge blind spot.

by nextos 2y ago

Dalewyn 2y ago

>We should go back to glass bottles, whenever possible. There are very good, very practical reasons we moved from glass (and metal and other materials) containers to plastic. Unless those factors are sufficiently addressed, plastic is here to stay. For those who haven't been keeping track or are just too damn young to know history, those factors include: * Weight. Glass and metal, and also other materials like ceramic and wooden containers, are heavy compared to plastic. This additional weight means it takes more energy to transport, meaning more costs in fuel and labor. * Fragility. This namely applies to glass; glass containers are fragile and they are very dangerous to handle if and when they break. Plastic containers are much more durable, and even if they break they are seldom as dangerous as broken glass. More broken containers also mean more goods lost to spillage, which in turn means additional cost to re-manufacture and re-ship. * Durability. Going along with the above, plastics are equal to metal containers in keeping contents and the outside world separated. This is incredibly important for ensuring food safety. * Contaminants. This applies primarily to metal containers, but also paper and sometimes ceramic. Metals leach into foods, this is mostly prevented with special coatings but it's not perfect and the coatings themselves are also contaminants that will eventually leach. Likewise paper containers which have coatings applied so liquids don't seep through, and sometimes ceramic containers to prevent leaching. We know these contaminants are bad, unlike microplastics where we still aren't conclusively sure. * Cost. Plastic is cheap compared to basically every other material we can make containers out of. This is a great boon to the consumer who ultimately ends up paying the most markup.

nextos 2y ago
Some EU supermarkets used to have a circular glass system where products were brought in bulk, and only canned in glass inside the shop, sometimes by the customer. Bottles were then returned after use, washed locally and reused many times. This looked fairly efficient. Restaurants and bars still have the same system here for e.g. Coca-Cola drinks, which come inside a glass bottle that has been reused several times. I'm not sure plastic is more efficient than reusing a glass bottle. Lots of yogurts are packaged in glass containers, and price seems average. I have also heard that plastic is rarely recycled, so it also sounds unsustainable from that perspective.
Aeglaecia 2y ago
in many ways it seems likely that this response was generated by chat gpt , I apologise if this was not the case
- Dalewyn 2y ago
  Apologies accepted.
  - deleted 2y ago
    [deleted]
vallassy 2y ago
I agree with every point here, and they all make a lot of sense... yet most alcoholic beverages are shipped to the consumer in glass bottles, including even the cheapest beers. I have seen some drinks shipped in plastic, so it is possible to do, I wonder if glass packaging is a 'premium' thing. Though, if they can do it for cheap beer, then I'm sure they can do it for non-alcoholic drinks on scale.
- Dalewyn 2y ago
  I've seen and had alcohol in plastic. They generally seem to do fine. But damn did it feel cheap in a bad way. Being cheap is obviously one of the reasons we use plastic containers, but the feeling associated with plastic alcohol is just plain irrationally bad.

hombre_fatal 2y ago

People don't even care about the atherosclerotic effect of saturated fats and lipoproteins that we've known for half a century.

kelipso 2y ago
What are you even talking about? Every single physical revolve around that with plenty of lectures from doctors and everyone talks about it all the time.

fy20 2y ago

> For example, car tires shed lots of microplastics that end up in eggs or inside vegetables and plants, which absorb them from soil. Last year I moved to a house with a greenhouse and started gardening, and was surprised not only by the amount of plastics used, but by the amount of UV unstable plastics used. - Previous owner used polyester string to tie up plants, which now just disintegrates whenever I touch it. I had to go out of my way to find jute twine. - I bought agricultural fabric to cover plants during spring. I left it at the top of the greenhouse over the summer to provide shade. By autumn it was disintegrating as it was not UV stable. Again I had to go out of my way to buy a UV stable polyester sheet that I will use now.

nextos 2y ago
True. The paradoxical thing is that even organic agriculture doesn't currently care much about microplastics given that they are not tested. It's a huge blind spot.