this post was submitted on 28 Dec 2025
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[–] iamanurd@midwest.social 40 points 2 months ago (4 children)

I don’t know how to judge 90,000 microplastic particles as a quantity.

[–] Nalivai@lemmy.world 18 points 2 months ago (3 children)

That's the fun thing about all this. Nobody knows. Is it much? Is it nothing? Is it dangerous? There is no people without microplastics in them, there is no way to have the control group for an experiement.
Everyone kinda suspects it can't be good, nobody has any fucking idea is it really

[–] saimen@feddit.org 6 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (1 children)

I mean they could set in relation to the absolute values. Does a person who doesn't drink bottled water ingests 100 or 100.000 particles?

[–] Nalivai@lemmy.world 7 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

Oh, that's measurable. What isn't exactly measurable is what ingesting whatever number of particles does to you

[–] BanMe@lemmy.world 2 points 2 months ago (2 children)

We know some of the effects, like endocrine and cellular disruption, which should be damning enough but the media likes to make it sound like microplastics may not be bad, people are being alarmist, etc. Because the media is owned by people who would be negatively affected by a plastic ban. Much like how we know tire and brake dust is a cause of autism, but no one is willing to put that in a headline.

[–] village604@adultswim.fan 7 points 2 months ago (1 children)

The link between tire and brake dust to ASD isn't a concrete causation yet. The papers do show a correlation, yes, but that isn't the same as definitive proof of causation.

For example, areas with higher tire/brake dust will have higher vehicle traffic, so it might be some other pollutant vehicles produce.

[–] Telodzrum@lemmy.world 1 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Most public health policy (and hell, most of medicine) is based on correlation. Causation isn’t generally needed and sometimes it’s not even possible to prove.

[–] humorlessrepost@lemmy.world 8 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

Sure. But they were responding to the claim that “we know tires and break dust is a cause of autism”. Not “there seems to be a correlation, so maybe we should err on the side of abundant caution and treat it as if it’s causal when drafting public policy.” The correction was warranted.

[–] GhostedIC@sh.itjust.works 1 points 2 months ago

Tire and brake dust causes autism? This explains mechanics.

[–] knowone@slrpnk.net 1 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (1 children)

This made me wonder do uncontacted peoples have microplastics in them in large amounts like we all do? Like say the Sentinelese, for instance? I'm sure they do have some at least, despite them not using it, but maybe not nearly to the extent we do? This isn't me advocating for using uncontacted peoples for studies and so on, obviously that's not a moral way to go at all. Just a curiosity thing. If so, then if this is the huge ticking time bomb we suspect it might be then maybe we'll all die off and they'll be pretty much the only ones left. Maybe even unaware for the most part that we all died off. Yeah I'm just rambling at this point...

[–] Nalivai@lemmy.world 1 points 2 months ago

They definitely have less of those, but given that we've found microplastics in deep sea creatures, I wouldn't think they have a lot less

[–] hunnybubny@discuss.tchncs.de 4 points 2 months ago (1 children)

It is about a five fluid footballfields.

[–] Furbag@lemmy.world 2 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Can you convert that to hamburgers or bald eagles?

[–] hunnybubny@discuss.tchncs.de 2 points 2 months ago (1 children)

All bald eagles flew away due to fascism. Sorry.

Which hamburger? Kfc, mac, wendy, fiveguys?

[–] Furbag@lemmy.world 2 points 2 months ago

Which hamburger? Kfc, mac, wendy, fiveguys?

Listen buddy, if I wanted a precise unit of measurement I'd be using metric.

Follow your heart~❤️

[–] confusedbytheBasics@lemmy.world 3 points 2 months ago

From the article, this might help:

Sajedi reviewed over 140 scientific papers to determine the effects of plastic bottles on the human body. She found that people ingest an average of 39,000 to 52,000 microplastic particles per year from food and drinking water, and those who use bottled water on a daily basis ingest nearly 90,000 more microplastic particles into their bodies.

[–] Lemminary@lemmy.world 2 points 2 months ago

I think they should be presenting that as particles per liter. At least the chemists among us would know, and they'd hold up their hands and say, "about this much!" /s