• ENipo@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    I could totally look this up, but for the sake of conversation: what consequences does the presence of microplastics have? I honestly don’t know

          • Olgratin_Magmatoe@startrek.website
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            1 year ago

            Even uncontacted tribes in the middle of nowhere islands probably have microplastics in their blood too. After all, they likely are eating animals that have microplastics. Stuff like this always gets worse the higher up the food chain you get, and humans are pretty high up.

            • rifugee@lemmy.world
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              1 year ago

              With the amount of trash in the ocean, I wouldn’t be surprised if even an uncontacted tribe is running around in mismatched sandals and drinking out of old plastic bottles.

              A guy I watch on YT has done a couple of short shipwreck survival challenges on some of the little islands off the coast of Australia. He starts barefoot and with no supplies and within an hour of scavenging the beach he has a pair of sandals, a half dozen bottles, both plastic and glass, and usually some fishing line or rope.

          • Killing_Spark@feddit.de
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            1 year ago

            If it’s actually present in clouds their water will be contaminated as well. They probably have a way lower exposure.

    • TurboDiesel@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      So, the big stink about BPA (a type of plastic) e:below is that it interferes with certain hormones in the body. I don’t know for sure what the concerns are with other microplastics, but I do remember reading they strongly suspect they can do similar things to our endocrine systems, as well as being probable carcinogens.

      • guyrocket@kbin.social
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        1 year ago

        No. BPA is not a type of plastic. It is a compound used to manufacture plastic.

        https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bisphenol_A

        As to the health effects, this is from the wikipedia article:

        Concern is mostly related to its estrogen-like activity, although it can interact with other receptor systems as an endocrine-disrupting chemical.

          • SquareBear@lemmy.ml
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            1 year ago

            Something creepy about the above statement…

            Anyway: They are linking microplastics to infertility in men. It’s messing with the little swimmers. Figure the same would happen in most species.

          • dubyakay@lemmy.ca
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            1 year ago

            “Fertility rate and motility in sperm is down 50% and we don’t understand why!”

    • LwL@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      There was an article i saw on here a few weeks ago about a study linking microplastics to changes in the brain that have been associated with dementia.

      Mostly we have no idea though.

    • sock@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      i have zero idea and this is a guess

      maybe it could clog up systems if theres too much build up coz it doesn’t get broken down or smth

      like fish dying and having plastic shit clogging up their organs when cut open