3 ms·

I like the analogy where other articles have said we have microplastics in our brain about the size of a credit card (which generally weigh between 4g and 10g)

I like the analogy where other articles have said we have microplastics in our brain about the size of a credit card (which generally weigh between 4g and 10g) better. Saying a “spoon’s worth” seems to be downplaying the unmitigated potential risk. We have no idea what will happen as we (and all the other creatures on earth) keep storing more and more microplastics in our organs. Nobody is going to stop driving. Car tires are the largest source of microplastics. (actually I don’t drive though so who am I to judge)

roenxi 2y ago
> unmitigated potential risk The risk does seem fairly mitigated, most of us will make it through today fine. The only part of my brain I can account for now is the 1x credit card worth of plastic, all the other bits are a mystery. Death was inevitable before the microplastics, remains inevitable after the microplastics and things seem fine so far. We don't know much about the risks of anything. People regularly douse themselves with mind-altering substances and ingest the weirdest variety of stuff.
- rTX5CMRXIfFG 2y ago
  Shortening your period of observation so that the effects have not occurred yet does not mean it’s “mitigated”. And your philosophy of your own mortality is just as reductive, because humans have been trying to survive since time immemorial and do not actively work on their deaths unless in an unhealthy mental state.
  - card_zero 2y ago
    Seems like a more important problem, then, the part where people inevitably die. I mean compared to having some plastic in their heads.
  - johnnyanmac 2y ago
    I mean, what are we really going to do about it? So much chaos in the world, I don't think many are focusing on keeping plastics out of our body. No one's championing it.
- SmirkingRevenge 2y ago
  Would be nice if just once these sorts of things could have beneficial effects.
  - card_zero 2y ago
    Like the ship-produced aerosols that seeded clouds, increased albedo, and cooled the planet, in what James Hansen has called a "Faustian bargain". We successfully stopped that with regulations.
- itishappy 2y ago
  > The risk does seem fairly mitigated, most of us will make it through today fine. This is an incorrect usage of the word "mitigate." To mitigate means to lessen the risk. Mitigation requires action. I suspect you mean that the risks are "overstated."
  - roenxi 2y ago
    I barely think the risks have been stated at all. They found a correlation between high levels of microplastics in the brain and dementia. There is a correlation between a bunch of things and dementia. I expect there is a correlation between good health and dementia, unhealthy people would tend to die off young without the time to fall apart mentally.
tcfhgj 2y ago
> Nobody is going to stop driving. Car tires are the largest source of microplastics. many already have, bicycles and public transport ftw
- knowitnone 2y ago
  still rubber so still microplastics?
  - tcfhgj 2y ago
    Less!
- lenerdenator 2y ago
  There's realistically fewer than twenty metro areas in the US where the majority of commuters could rely solely on biking and public transit for everything. Twenty might be generous, even.
  - sien 2y ago
    Since the pandemic passenger car miles, airline miles are back at pre-pandemic levels. Transit use is at 80% of pre-pandemic levels. https://ti.org/antiplanner/?p=22722 https://ti.org/antiplanner/?p=22722 Farebox recovery ratios have consequently become even worse. The new US government is also presumably not going to fund much transit expansion. It'd be interesting to see if more people work from home on a given day than use mass transit to get to work. It's also pretty similar in Australia at least and probably in more places around the world.
  - idle_zealot 2y ago
    There is a positive spin on this: the majority of Americans already live in or near dense urban centers. If we had solid public transportation only within these centers and to adjacent suburbs we would eliminate most car trips. That's bot much physical area to cover.
    - lenerdenator 2y ago
card_zero 2y ago
To me, the spoon sounds scarier. But I don't think there's a right answer to how scary a new phenomenon should be made to sound. You want it to sound scarier, this thing we don't know much about? Won't that happen naturally since everybody's ready to be scared of news anyway? Is it being downplayed? Relative to what, hunches? The information should be presented dispassionately, but engagingly, and that is an impossible combination, so it what we'll actually get is always something with the wrong overtones.
wruza 2y ago
Not to mention that all spoons are different. I always get confused about “half a spoon”. Is it half of a “pile” or there must be half of its surface visible from above, while the subject matter is flat in the spoon (i.e. the lateral projection shows only the spoon). And should you account for the pile slope in case of bulk materials? And then when you figure that out, your spoon may be anywhere 0.5-1.5x in size/depth than someone else’s. It may be literally 3x times more or less. But even that is still less inexact than measurement extrapolation methods that the article uses, according to the top commenter.
- plagiarist 2y ago
  I was trying to figure out from the headline if they meant enough microplastics to fill the bowl of a spoon or microplastics equivalent to a plastic spoon. I don't know why everyone is allergic to weights and measures. If they're going for shock value they should use something more sinister than a spoon. Like enough plastic to make a little decorative Halloween spider. People would be more frightened by a spider than a spoonful of plastic.

roenxi 2y ago

> unmitigated potential risk The risk does seem fairly mitigated, most of us will make it through today fine. The only part of my brain I can account for now is the 1x credit card worth of plastic, all the other bits are a mystery. Death was inevitable before the microplastics, remains inevitable after the microplastics and things seem fine so far. We don't know much about the risks of anything. People regularly douse themselves with mind-altering substances and ingest the weirdest variety of stuff.

rTX5CMRXIfFG 2y ago
Shortening your period of observation so that the effects have not occurred yet does not mean it’s “mitigated”. And your philosophy of your own mortality is just as reductive, because humans have been trying to survive since time immemorial and do not actively work on their deaths unless in an unhealthy mental state.
- card_zero 2y ago
  Seems like a more important problem, then, the part where people inevitably die. I mean compared to having some plastic in their heads.
- johnnyanmac 2y ago
  I mean, what are we really going to do about it? So much chaos in the world, I don't think many are focusing on keeping plastics out of our body. No one's championing it.
SmirkingRevenge 2y ago
Would be nice if just once these sorts of things could have beneficial effects.
- card_zero 2y ago
  Like the ship-produced aerosols that seeded clouds, increased albedo, and cooled the planet, in what James Hansen has called a "Faustian bargain". We successfully stopped that with regulations.
itishappy 2y ago
> The risk does seem fairly mitigated, most of us will make it through today fine. This is an incorrect usage of the word "mitigate." To mitigate means to lessen the risk. Mitigation requires action. I suspect you mean that the risks are "overstated."
- roenxi 2y ago
  I barely think the risks have been stated at all. They found a correlation between high levels of microplastics in the brain and dementia. There is a correlation between a bunch of things and dementia. I expect there is a correlation between good health and dementia, unhealthy people would tend to die off young without the time to fall apart mentally.

tcfhgj 2y ago

> Nobody is going to stop driving. Car tires are the largest source of microplastics. many already have, bicycles and public transport ftw

knowitnone 2y ago
still rubber so still microplastics?
- tcfhgj 2y ago
  Less!
lenerdenator 2y ago
There's realistically fewer than twenty metro areas in the US where the majority of commuters could rely solely on biking and public transit for everything. Twenty might be generous, even.
- sien 2y ago
  Since the pandemic passenger car miles, airline miles are back at pre-pandemic levels. Transit use is at 80% of pre-pandemic levels. https://ti.org/antiplanner/?p=22722 https://ti.org/antiplanner/?p=22722 Farebox recovery ratios have consequently become even worse. The new US government is also presumably not going to fund much transit expansion. It'd be interesting to see if more people work from home on a given day than use mass transit to get to work. It's also pretty similar in Australia at least and probably in more places around the world.
- idle_zealot 2y ago
  There is a positive spin on this: the majority of Americans already live in or near dense urban centers. If we had solid public transportation only within these centers and to adjacent suburbs we would eliminate most car trips. That's bot much physical area to cover.
  - lenerdenator 2y ago

card_zero 2y ago

To me, the spoon sounds scarier. But I don't think there's a right answer to how scary a new phenomenon should be made to sound. You want it to sound scarier, this thing we don't know much about? Won't that happen naturally since everybody's ready to be scared of news anyway? Is it being downplayed? Relative to what, hunches? The information should be presented dispassionately, but engagingly, and that is an impossible combination, so it what we'll actually get is always something with the wrong overtones.

wruza 2y ago

Not to mention that all spoons are different. I always get confused about “half a spoon”. Is it half of a “pile” or there must be half of its surface visible from above, while the subject matter is flat in the spoon (i.e. the lateral projection shows only the spoon). And should you account for the pile slope in case of bulk materials? And then when you figure that out, your spoon may be anywhere 0.5-1.5x in size/depth than someone else’s. It may be literally 3x times more or less. But even that is still less inexact than measurement extrapolation methods that the article uses, according to the top commenter.

plagiarist 2y ago
I was trying to figure out from the headline if they meant enough microplastics to fill the bowl of a spoon or microplastics equivalent to a plastic spoon. I don't know why everyone is allergic to weights and measures. If they're going for shock value they should use something more sinister than a spoon. Like enough plastic to make a little decorative Halloween spider. People would be more frightened by a spider than a spoonful of plastic.