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Remember those stupid people in the past, drinking lead-poisoned water? At least we could just stop using lead in pipes when we found out it's bad for us. Good luck finding anything to ingest without microplastics.
My thought exactly: it’s essentially impossible to avoid micro plastic ingestion. I have no idea how one would go about removing plastic packaging from their food supply as it’s used to package basically everything.
Small steps. I replaced my mixing bowls with stainless steel, my food storage containers that take anything warm with glass, and my drinking cup with an SS one as well. At the very least, everything looks cooler now ;)
We still have lead pipes in a number of places... its not like we snapped our fingers and all the lead pipes were magically gone.
Lead is still everywhere. Many electrical cords, Christmas decorations, paint remaining in homes from the 60s and before, even the 70s and possibly 80s. Many tools still sold today, screwdrivers, drill bits, etc. Many fresh produce foods have the potential and often do contain unsafe levels of lead, yes, stuff you buy at the grocery store. Some spices. Stained glass windows. Paints on cheap Chinese or elsewhere toys and other goods. People get lead poisoning today just from living their life not realizing normal stuff around them is dangerous. For real.
I'm not saying any of this is untrue, I'm saying consider the domain name of your news source too.
It's not like they don't link the study ;)
Interesting read, I guess testing on mice is all you can do the behavioral part. But the methods section doesn't state any weaknesses, I know it's nor required but you know.
At the end of the 3-week-long exposure, behavioral testing began. During the open-field test, mice were allowed to explore a low-lit chamber for 90 min with spontaneous movements monitored in the x-, y-, and z-directions. Several parameters to measure behavioral performance were recorded, including distance traveled, rearing activity, and duration in the center. Surprisingly, we found that acute exposure to PS-MPs induced an increase in distance traveled, which was more pronounced in older animals (Figure 3A–D). Similarly, both young and old PS-MP-exposed mice reared significantly more in the open-field, as compared to age-matched controls (Figure 3E–H). Young PS-MP-exposed mice did not spend more time in the center of the chamber overall (Figure 3J), but both low- and high-dose groups spent more time in the center when analyzed as a function of time (Figure 3I). Low- and medium-dose older animals also showed an increased duration in the center (Figure 3K,L).
I share your concerns regarding the domain name (alleviated by linked study) and methods.
I'd just like to add that, at least for me, the alarming part is regarding the distribution of these, they seem to be not only lipophillic (which would be expected, considering the nature of them), but also able to cross the blood-brain barrier, something evolved in order to keep bad stuff out (sure, the lipophillic nature explains that part as well, but presumably the fact that they are undissolved but basically very small particles, there was probably some hope towards them not being able to cross).
To me, this raises some questions regarding what else travels with them, and are they inadvertently becoming a vector for stuff that would normally be more easily disposed of? Thinking of things like the first pass effect here, in the liver where things like 'naked' pollutants would be processed/eliminated 'on sight'; then, if something comes along adsorbed/absorbed into a 3D structure that hides it from the body long enough and then reaches the brain, that something could be potentially leached in a highly unfortunate place. Think targetted drug delivery - only random and with whatever happened to be around while the microplastic was forming.
Add to this the fact that any and all studies lack a control group since the things are in everything and everyone. Would it even be possible to grow plastic-free lab animals to test them? How would you even isolate the area without using any sort of plastic?
I predict that behavioral studies are more likely than not to show erratic results due to having different baselines of comparison for each subject because of the heterogeneity of contamination, so even spiking with the same agent in the same manner, you'd be either compounding an effect, potentially countering another or perhaps just eliciting a totally different response. How would one control for that? Maybe get as uniform a starting group as possible but how would you prove that uniformity?
Well that's absolutely horrifying.
If it makes you feel any better, it's so large a problem that you're likely utterly powerless to stop it.
You're not wrong, but now that I've read this article I'm pretty sure I can feel the microplastics inflaming my brain.
I wonder if micro plastics will be our generation's lead.
Hopefully not as damaging...?
Hopefully not as damaging…?
Ha, maybe not directly but as ubiquitous as it is, we're completely fucked. It's everywhere and not going away. The damage has already been done, we're just starting to examine to what extent.
I often see articles about the effects of microplastics, but I have yet to see or read about the best steps we can take to combat them.
Can anyone recommend some content that describes ways to reduce exposure or share the most effective ways there are of reducing microplastic exposure?
Don't heat food in plastic in the microwave. Put in the effort to put it in glass or a plate or so, then heat.
Don't store hot leftovers in plastic.
Don't buy and drink plastic bottled water.
If you can in the stores in general chose between food and drinks packaged in glass or cardboard vs anything else: chances are glass or cardboard packaging is the healthier choice. Aluminum cans should still be okayish too, tho they possibly layered it with plastic inside too depending on the pH of the contents to slow down reactions between can and product.
There is no living creature and no source of water without microplastics in it. Newborns have it in their blood and ground water has concentrations of it.
yes, that is correct. I never said it would bring your intake to zero. But those appear to be big ways of microplastic intake we can control: food+packaging and food+heat. Harder to control the air you breathe in the city...
Ban plastic. There is literally no other way. Nothing you do on an individual level will have the slightest bit of impact at all. Government has to treat plastic like Freon/DDT or any other chemical that was banned world-wide because of huge unexpected impact.
They can't ban literally all plastic; it's irreplaceable in some medical applications.
Use natural fiber clothing only, no polyester, just cotton or whatever other natural fibers. Try to use less packaged food. But one of the major sources of microplastics is tire wear from vehicles, not sure what can be done about from a personal level other than not drive, which, I mean, who's really gonna do that?
Most societies actually got around perfectly fine for most of history without driving. It's really only in the past seventy years or so that urban planners brains collectively escaped their heads and started designing cities where it's impossible to do anything without exploding some old dinosaur goo in a giant expensive death machine.
tire wear from vehicles, not sure what can be done about from a personal level
One more reason to wear a well-fitted respirator
The two largest sources of microplastics are clothing and car tires. Clothing is a pretty easy fix. Only buy natural fibers like cotton, wool, etc. For car tires you will have to drive less. These two sources account for more than half of microplastics.
This generation's Leaded Gasoline.
Many, many future generation's leaded gasoline aswell. You're welcome, future generations! We thought, we'd add a little something to the mix to take your mind of the climate disaster.
It's worse unfortunately. Even if we stopped using plastic materials today the effects from this will carry on for many generations. Fortunately, I'm confident we will also find ways to mitigate the issue over time as well, but it's a far greater challenge than lead. Perhaps as a positive the symptoms might not be akin to the violent behavior lead caused around the world. We shall see.
I'm imagining a world where humans live under the spell of microplastics like leaf cutter ants are hypnotized by fungus.
Oh wait, we already needlessly dig up fossil fuels for the plastic overlords despite all better judgment
Plastics are into everything. Good luck getting that dirt bag lobby out of Congress.
Maybe the cotton industry could help, like they did with cannabis?
Microplastics are in breast milk too. Our babies aren't safe from it either.
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2022/oct/07/microplastics-human-breast-milk-first-time
Previous studies have suggested that GFAP expression might decrease in early stages of some neurodegenerative diseases, such as Alzheimer’s disease, or in younger patients with depression disorders.
So Alzheimer’s or depression, eh? So if I have chronic depression am I safe from Alzheimer’s or am I going to be depressed and constantly forgetting my medication?