Microplastics - Even More Dangerous

[What Would Jesus Do?]

The plastics we breathe​

Every time you take a breath, you could be inhaling microplastics.

[some excerpts]

There are no U.S. laws or regulations governing microplastics in the air or in food.

One study found that people inhale or ingest on average 74,000 to 121,000 microplastic particles per year through breathing, eating and drinking.

That plastic is burrowing its way into almost every major organ.

Not only can those tiny particles infiltrate many parts of the body, causing inflammation, but plastics also have a laundry list of chemical additives: flame retardants, lubricants, solvents. These chemicals, in turn, can leach out of particles that have reached some of our most vulnerable organs.

Of the more than 10,000 chemicals used in the manufacture of plastic, scientists have identified over 2,400 as potentially toxic.

As plastic production increases, so do the risks to human health. In 1950, the world produced 2 million metric tons of plastic every year; last year, it was over 400 million metric tons.

Plastics, unlike other substances, don’t break down — they simply break up into smaller and smaller pieces.

lots more here

https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/interactive/2024/microplastics-air-human-body-organs-spread/

 

[TC Nole OX]

Republican voters don’t care

 

[Finance85]

Just wait until people get educated on how much tire dust is increasingly being spewed into the air, with EV's being way worse thane ICE vehicles.

 

[What Would Jesus Do?]

It's a really good article but some of the best parts don't lend themselves to cutting and pasting. For example, the sequence below is accompanied by nice pics and diagrams.


When inhaled, the largest pieces are trapped in our airways’ mucus and moved along by hair-like structures called cilia until they are expelled through sneezing.

But smaller pieces can penetrate the body’s defenses. If the pieces are small enough – less than 10 micrometers – they can reach the terminal part of the lungs, the alveoli, where oxygen reaches the blood.

They can linger in the alveoli for long periods, causing inflammation and potentially other chronic conditions.

Small microplastics, probably the ones below 2.5 micrometers, might take the same path as oxygen and enter the bloodstream.

Once they are in the bloodstream, they can spread to virtually any place in the body. Microplastics have been found in the placenta, the liver and breast milk.

Smaller microplastics can be attacked by some of the body’s defense cells, known as macrophages. But these cells, unable to break down the microplastic, eventually die.

The plastic is then swallowed again by another defense cell, which repeats the process, stressing the body’s immune system.

 

[Rifler]

Republican voters don’t care

Of course,.. vile creatures that we are.

 

[Jerome Silberman]

Just wait until people get educated on how much tire dust is increasingly being spewed into the air, with EV's being way worse thane ICE vehicles.

Bring on the trains.

 

[binsfeldcyhawk2]

Republican voters don’t care

Anyone that drinks out of plastic water bottles doesn't care.

Scientists find about a quarter million invisible microplastic particles in a liter of bottled water

Scientists long figured there were lots of these microscopic plastic pieces, but until researchers at Columbia and Rutgers universities did their calculations they never knew how many or what kind.

www.pbs.org

 

[Finance85]

It's a really good article but some of the best parts don't lend themselves to cutting and pasting. For example, the sequence below is accompanied by nice pics and diagrams.


When inhaled, the largest pieces are trapped in our airways’ mucus and moved along by hair-like structures called cilia until they are expelled through sneezing.

But smaller pieces can penetrate the body’s defenses. If the pieces are small enough – less than 10 micrometers – they can reach the terminal part of the lungs, the alveoli, where oxygen reaches the blood.

They can linger in the alveoli for long periods, causing inflammation and potentially other chronic conditions.

Small microplastics, probably the ones below 2.5 micrometers, might take the same path as oxygen and enter the bloodstream.

Once they are in the bloodstream, they can spread to virtually any place in the body. Microplastics have been found in the placenta, the liver and breast milk.

Smaller microplastics can be attacked by some of the body’s defense cells, known as macrophages. But these cells, unable to break down the microplastic, eventually die.

The plastic is then swallowed again by another defense cell, which repeats the process, stressing the body’s immune system.

Here's a link to an Atlantic article.

https://www.theatlantic.com/technol...hicles-tires-wearing-out-particulates/674750/

Note - I'm all for progress, but it needs to evolve at it's own pace, with all consequences considered.

 

[What Would Jesus Do?]

Just wait until people get educated on how much tire dust is increasingly being spewed into the air, with EV's being way worse thane ICE vehicles.

It's a downside. Not a reason to drill, drill, drill.

 

[ericram]

The conservatives do not believe in a healthy planet.