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This whole issue around microplastics has just become another grift for the health and wellness industry. The supplements industry is worth over $150B dollars.

This whole issue around microplastics has just become another grift for the health and wellness industry. The supplements industry is worth over $150B dollars. The main contributor to microplastic ingestion is in the water you drink, this water is contaminated with either parts of your car tire or the synthetic clothes you wear

estearum 3mo ago
What does the second line have to do with the first? Anyone I know who is concerned about microplastics is worried about food packaging, water contamination, and clothing.
- cucumber3732842 3mo ago
  >What does the second line have to do with the first? The fact that like damn near ever regulated issue of the 20th century some big moneyed interests will leverage that concern to create a regulatory moat for themselves, drive business to themselves by force of law, etc, etc. The bone the public will be thrown will consist of making the regulated problem some trivial amount less worse for a little while before the Nt order consequences screw us harder than the original problem in a few decades.
  - estearum 3mo ago
    So the claim is that the supplement industry is involved in some type of regulatory capture that pertains to microplastics? I don't think that's true, nor is it the claim being made.
    - cucumber3732842 3mo ago
      The claim is that the industry is chomping at the bit to have microplastics declared some sort of problem or otherwise regulated or subject to artificial pressure so they can make money over-selling (or having people be forced to buy) solutions to a problem that's over-hyped. The paper industry people are salivating over it too so they can sell paper bags and paper filter media and cardboard packaging, etc, etc. Basically they see what the "green grift" people have going on and they want a copy for themselves.
      - estearum 3mo ago
        This doesn't actually explain what the second line of the aforementioned comment has to do with the first. If you're so certain the microplastic threat is overhyped, I would encourage you to publish a paper explaining and evidencing your rationale! As you mention, the ground is ripe for some controversy on this topic.
        vablings 3mo ago
        I am not a scientist; I would consider myself not informed enough to make a paper. I have read many papers, I know about microplastics and my personal consensus is that they are not a big deal and the biggest sources of microplastics are from water contamination. "The fact that like damn near ever regulated issue of the 20th century some big moneyed interests will leverage that concern to create a regulatory moat for themselves, drive business to themselves by force of law, etc, etc. The bone the public will be thrown will consist of making the regulated problem some trivial amount less worse for a little while before the Nt order consequences screw us harder than the original problem in a few decades." This is a much more elegant way of wording prior to describe it. If microplastics do turn out to be a big issue it's a public health thing and the government will be required to clean up the groundwater with extra filtration ect. Not something worth spending my time thinking about
        estearum 3mo ago
        Can you describe exactly how (by what mechanism) the government would be required to even figure out whether it's a big issue, much less remediate it, if everyone had the same attitude that you do? Or are you just hoping that other people take up the issue in direct opposition to your own dismissiveness?
        vablings 3mo ago
        "Can you describe exactly how (by what mechanism) the government" They give funding to research, that research is published and a scientific consensus is established. I don't expect everyone to have the same attitude as me, I am an engineer and work on my specific engineering problems that I am most educated and qualified to work on. I would not expect microplastic research scientist to start doing my job. That's the wonderful thing about this planet we live on, there are many different folks with many different skills, and everyone's lives are better for it. I find your speech hereto be very reductive and confrontational for essentially no reason, and possibly because you skimmed over a phrase in my other comment "personal consensus"
  - cindyllm 3mo ago
    [dead]
  - andrekandre 3mo ago
    > some trivial amount less worse for a little while before the Nt order consequences screw us like unleaded gasoline?
amanaplanacanal 3mo ago
Under sink reverse osmosis filter for the win.
Yokolos 3mo ago
Are you suggesting that all the scientists studying microplastics and papers about microplastics are just grifting for the health and wellness industry? Also, are you suggesting that a pharma company like Philip Morris, with a yearly revenue of $40 billion, part of the TRILLION dollar pharma industry, is somehow less influential than the health and wellness industry? There's a grift alright, and it's not some former FDA scientist selling it.
- vablings 3mo ago
  I have not seen any conclusive evidence that microplastics have large, long-standing effects on humans. "Also, are you suggesting that a pharma company like Philip Morris, with a yearly revenue of $40 billion, part of the TRILLION dollar pharma industry, is somehow less influential than the health and wellness industry?" Unironically yes, because they are heavily regulated since the early days of the tobacco industry.

estearum 3mo ago

What does the second line have to do with the first? Anyone I know who is concerned about microplastics is worried about food packaging, water contamination, and clothing.

cucumber3732842 3mo ago
>What does the second line have to do with the first? The fact that like damn near ever regulated issue of the 20th century some big moneyed interests will leverage that concern to create a regulatory moat for themselves, drive business to themselves by force of law, etc, etc. The bone the public will be thrown will consist of making the regulated problem some trivial amount less worse for a little while before the Nt order consequences screw us harder than the original problem in a few decades.
- estearum 3mo ago
  So the claim is that the supplement industry is involved in some type of regulatory capture that pertains to microplastics? I don't think that's true, nor is it the claim being made.
  - cucumber3732842 3mo ago
    The claim is that the industry is chomping at the bit to have microplastics declared some sort of problem or otherwise regulated or subject to artificial pressure so they can make money over-selling (or having people be forced to buy) solutions to a problem that's over-hyped. The paper industry people are salivating over it too so they can sell paper bags and paper filter media and cardboard packaging, etc, etc. Basically they see what the "green grift" people have going on and they want a copy for themselves.
    - estearum 3mo ago
      This doesn't actually explain what the second line of the aforementioned comment has to do with the first. If you're so certain the microplastic threat is overhyped, I would encourage you to publish a paper explaining and evidencing your rationale! As you mention, the ground is ripe for some controversy on this topic.
      - vablings 3mo ago
        I am not a scientist; I would consider myself not informed enough to make a paper. I have read many papers, I know about microplastics and my personal consensus is that they are not a big deal and the biggest sources of microplastics are from water contamination. "The fact that like damn near ever regulated issue of the 20th century some big moneyed interests will leverage that concern to create a regulatory moat for themselves, drive business to themselves by force of law, etc, etc. The bone the public will be thrown will consist of making the regulated problem some trivial amount less worse for a little while before the Nt order consequences screw us harder than the original problem in a few decades." This is a much more elegant way of wording prior to describe it. If microplastics do turn out to be a big issue it's a public health thing and the government will be required to clean up the groundwater with extra filtration ect. Not something worth spending my time thinking about
        estearum 3mo ago
        Can you describe exactly how (by what mechanism) the government would be required to even figure out whether it's a big issue, much less remediate it, if everyone had the same attitude that you do? Or are you just hoping that other people take up the issue in direct opposition to your own dismissiveness?
        vablings 3mo ago
        "Can you describe exactly how (by what mechanism) the government" They give funding to research, that research is published and a scientific consensus is established. I don't expect everyone to have the same attitude as me, I am an engineer and work on my specific engineering problems that I am most educated and qualified to work on. I would not expect microplastic research scientist to start doing my job. That's the wonderful thing about this planet we live on, there are many different folks with many different skills, and everyone's lives are better for it. I find your speech hereto be very reductive and confrontational for essentially no reason, and possibly because you skimmed over a phrase in my other comment "personal consensus"
- cindyllm 3mo ago
  [dead]
- andrekandre 3mo ago
  > some trivial amount less worse for a little while before the Nt order consequences screw us like unleaded gasoline?

amanaplanacanal 3mo ago

Under sink reverse osmosis filter for the win.

Yokolos 3mo ago

Are you suggesting that all the scientists studying microplastics and papers about microplastics are just grifting for the health and wellness industry? Also, are you suggesting that a pharma company like Philip Morris, with a yearly revenue of $40 billion, part of the TRILLION dollar pharma industry, is somehow less influential than the health and wellness industry? There's a grift alright, and it's not some former FDA scientist selling it.

vablings 3mo ago
I have not seen any conclusive evidence that microplastics have large, long-standing effects on humans. "Also, are you suggesting that a pharma company like Philip Morris, with a yearly revenue of $40 billion, part of the TRILLION dollar pharma industry, is somehow less influential than the health and wellness industry?" Unironically yes, because they are heavily regulated since the early days of the tobacco industry.