Microplastics Found In Human Hearts For First Time, Showing Impact Of Pollution
Microplastics Found In Human Hearts For First Time, Showing Impact Of Pollution
A study published in the journal Environmental Science and Technology for found microplastics in the hearts and blood of humans undergoing cardiac surgery.
Microplastics Found In Human Hearts For First Time, Showing Impact Of Pollution::A study published in the journal Environmental Science and Technology for found microplastics in the hearts and blood of humans undergoing cardiac surgery.
One of the possible answers astrophysicists give for why we haven't seen more evidence of intelligent life in the universe, is that there are technological milestones that lead to doomsday scenarios. They're "great filters" that many advanced civilizations don't survive. The classic example is nuclear fission and the power it gives to destroy. I'm convinced that plastic is one of these filters.
I'd figure those plastics wreak havoc in the long term in an individual life but won't prevent people form reproducing and developing. It might be a serious setback but just a hurdle for humanity. Climate change, our nuclear arsenal, ... pose more urgent threats.
Pretty sure plastics save more.lives than they destroy. Modern medicine isn't nearly as effective without them.
Not necessarily the creation of plastic--I agree that it's very beneficial--but the management of plastic. As we're seeing now, plastic can be very destructive to life when it's used and disposed of irresponsibly. The filter in this case is being able to use plastic for its good without letting its harmful aspects get out of control.
If they end up destroying the whole species?
I wouldn't necessarily be convinced of that. I'd put that in a similar category as climate change. It might catastrophically ravage the world, but I think humans would survive. It's not the same punctuated event as nuclear fission. If a crazy person got control of nukes early in, they could wreak havoc on the world. Initial blasts kill tons of people, radiation would likely not be fully understood and fallout changes the global landscape before humanity can realistically react. Contrast that with global warming and microplastics, we know (we as in humanity in the broader sense) these are issues. It might need to get to the catastrophic ravaging before enough people are convinced, but eventually it will happen. And the intervening time won't cause humans to go extinct. Sure billions might die, but not all.
This is our lead, isn't it?
I wish. Plastic pollution will stay around for much longer and we still don't even know how to fix this mess. Meanwhile it's getting worse.
We started mass production of plastic 90 years ago, and we're choking on it. We need to stop all plastic production.
Please take a moment to think of everything in your life that is made of plastic, and then think of what could replace it.
The problem is that many medical devices for the disabled and chronically ill are made of plastic. It's why the disability community protested the plastic straw ban, since many of them require to use them to consume anything.
I genuinely emphasize with the people that rely on plastic materials to get through life, it's tough in that situation. I think the solution for straws (since that's a more simple solution) would be either something reusable like metal staws or something compostable like agave straws. Medical applications should replace with compostable plastics like hemp. My point is that stopping cold turkey with petroleum based plastics would be better than trying to slowly phase it out. The plastics cartel will do anything to slow down the phase out
I think plastics are genuinely awesome, but we are over-reliant on them. I'd also rather not drive, but there will always be someone who has a use for cars.
I could remove single-use plastics from my life if my groceries were packaged sustainably. But for example, scientists use single-use plastics and that's a good thing.
we need to at least make a plastic that is sustainable, biodegradable, and with a shorter lifespan depending on the applications. for example, a water bottle could be made to last 6 months or so depending on the size, while a keyboard could be made to last decades before starting to break down. this would be quite hard to achieve, but if we want to keep all the commodities given to us by plastic, while also keeping our health, we have to invest some money into research.
Yeah, I'm pretty sure there's microplastics in human everything at this point. How is this a revelation?
Because it was found for the first time. I didn't even need to read the article to answer your question.
So, i was feeling pretty apocalyptic about this too - until it learned that "micro plastics" include any synthetic fibers like polyester. i mean, of course our clothing lint will get everywhere
Do you think there should be cotton in our hearts too? Just because we wear something doesn't mean it should be inside our bodies too.
clean your dryer's lint trap.
I have been trying to replace as many of my synthetic clothes and textiles with cotton (or other natural textiles) as possible...
Yeah sure why the fuck not. Toss it on the pile of everything thats fucking wrong.
Hey friend, don't let yourself become doomer. There's good news out there, too.
Yep, while you may think that you have a heart of gold or perhaps stone, your heart may actually have microplastics in it. And in this case, life in plastic is not fantastic, regardless of what the Barbie song by Aqua says.
After all, “Please fill my body with pieces of plastic” is probably not what you often say.
Yes, they used freaking laser beams to detect the presence of microplastics
They also found something bloody awful: nine types of microplastics in patients’ blood samples
Even things that may not obviously seem to have plastic, like various types of clothes, can have lots o’ plastic in them
But all of this may just be the tip of the plasticberg.
In fact, you may be like a walking credit card with the amount of plastic that you already have in you.
The issue is important and the data is scary, but this article reads like the work of a ten-year-old class clown giving an oral report during a sugar high.
Materialism in the hearts of men
Link to the paper: https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/acs.est.2c07179
The paper mentions controlling for accidental exposure during surgery, although it is also behind a paywall, so it's not possible to tell whether they might have been more exposed to plastic because of whatever heart issues required surgery in the first place, or whether it is something that might also be in healthy humans.
On a side note, why is this in !technology, anyhow? It doesn't seem all that tech-related, except maybe in terms of the plastic discussion.
It's an ever aging reference to The Good Place