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Initial data says they're at least bad for sea life. Doubtful it's good to have such durable micro materials bouncing around our lungs and digestive tracts. Sto

Initial data says they're at least bad for sea life. Doubtful it's good to have such durable micro materials bouncing around our lungs and digestive tracts. Stopping pollution is also much easier than cleaning up after the fact. https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC10151227/ https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC10151227/

thaumasiotes 2y ago
> Doubtful it's good to have such durable micro materials bouncing around our lungs and digestive tracts. Having odd things in your lungs is bad. Having things bouncing around in your digestive tract means nothing. The whole point of the digestive tract is that you put untrusted materials into it.
- jcims 2y ago
  As long as it actually makes it out the other end. Bits of undigestable matter the size of smoke particles is a relatively new phenomenon.
  - lazide 2y ago
    Uh, smoke particles and mineral dusts are generally non digestible - and we’ve been eating smoked/cooked meats and slightly dirty things for at least as long as recorded history?
    - thatcat 2y ago
      isnt smoked/charred food associated with colon cancer?
      - lazide 2y ago
        Many of the chemicals in smoke particles cause cancer with extended contact. But not new. At all.
      - MVissers 2y ago
        Yes. And the last decades we’ve had a new unknown cause of colon cancer increase in young adults. My money is on plastics, but will be hard to prove.
        wahern 2y ago
        There's growing evidence, especially in the past few years with better studies, that suggests HPV is a significant driver, if not the most significant driver, of the increase in colorectal cancer among younger adults. I suspect it's been a disfavored explanation because of certain implications--implications which should be irrelevant and not even necessarily true, but I digress. The HPV vaccine should in theory be protective[1] so in the next decade or so it might become more clear even in the absence of additional direct investigation. Likewise, we should expect the incidence of oropharyngeal cancers to decrease, which probably not coincidentally has also risen among younger--20-50yo--adults. Notably, the HPV link is more clearly established. [1] HPV16 and HPV18 being the variants most often identified in HPV-associated colorectal cancers[2], and which are targeted by HPV vaccines as they're the variants primarily responsible for cervical and anal cancers. [2] See, e.g., https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC1479314/ https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC1479314/ and https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC9610003/ https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC9610003/
        lazide 2y ago
        Very interesting! Perhaps inappropriate to ask, but are you thinking the implication is anal sex, or the ‘eating ass’ cultural element, or something else?

thaumasiotes 2y ago

> Doubtful it's good to have such durable micro materials bouncing around our lungs and digestive tracts. Having odd things in your lungs is bad. Having things bouncing around in your digestive tract means nothing. The whole point of the digestive tract is that you put untrusted materials into it.

jcims 2y ago
As long as it actually makes it out the other end. Bits of undigestable matter the size of smoke particles is a relatively new phenomenon.
- lazide 2y ago
  Uh, smoke particles and mineral dusts are generally non digestible - and we’ve been eating smoked/cooked meats and slightly dirty things for at least as long as recorded history?
  - thatcat 2y ago
    isnt smoked/charred food associated with colon cancer?
    - lazide 2y ago
      Many of the chemicals in smoke particles cause cancer with extended contact. But not new. At all.
    - MVissers 2y ago
      Yes. And the last decades we’ve had a new unknown cause of colon cancer increase in young adults. My money is on plastics, but will be hard to prove.
      - wahern 2y ago
        There's growing evidence, especially in the past few years with better studies, that suggests HPV is a significant driver, if not the most significant driver, of the increase in colorectal cancer among younger adults. I suspect it's been a disfavored explanation because of certain implications--implications which should be irrelevant and not even necessarily true, but I digress. The HPV vaccine should in theory be protective[1] so in the next decade or so it might become more clear even in the absence of additional direct investigation. Likewise, we should expect the incidence of oropharyngeal cancers to decrease, which probably not coincidentally has also risen among younger--20-50yo--adults. Notably, the HPV link is more clearly established. [1] HPV16 and HPV18 being the variants most often identified in HPV-associated colorectal cancers[2], and which are targeted by HPV vaccines as they're the variants primarily responsible for cervical and anal cancers. [2] See, e.g., https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC1479314/ https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC1479314/ and https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC9610003/ https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC9610003/
        lazide 2y ago
        Very interesting! Perhaps inappropriate to ask, but are you thinking the implication is anal sex, or the ‘eating ass’ cultural element, or something else?