11mo ago

At this point, Microplastics pollution should probably be included

The average brain weighs 1300-1400 grams. If 0.5% of that is plastic by weight, your brain contains 6.5 - 7 grams of plastic. The average plastic credit card weighs 5 grams.

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/article/2024/aug/21/microplastics-brain-pollution-health

46 comments

Jesus christ. I really thought that headline was exaggerated, but no, the brain samples they tested actually ended up being 0.5% plastic by weight. That's seriously disturbing, I really would have thought the blood-brain barrier would do a better job of keeping plastics out.
- For every kilometer you drive, your tires shed 1 trillion plastic particles. 78% of microplastics in the ocean are from tires.
  
  What are you suggesting? That I stop peeling out of every parking lot and doing sick doughnuts!?
  
  Maybe switching most of the transportation to steel tires on steel roads would help with this.
- Neuroplasticity makes so much more sense to me now.
- How does one become an anti plastic advocate? How do I target plastic specifically? Are some plastics better than others?
  
  It comes from car tires, single-use plastics teflon pans, and plastic food containers. Plastic items that are meant to last a long time aren’t shedding as much.
  So if you want to reduce your microplastic contributions, avoid driving, avoid single-use plastics, don’t buy non-stick pans, and use glass food containers.
  
  Ya just kinda scream into the void on the Internet while the plastic industry bribes... Er... Lobbies congress into not giving a shit.
0.5% of our brains being plastic is pretty shocking.
- Agreed. Nevermind all the other places they've found plastic pollution in our bodies.
OK but what's the limit on that card
- Mine was declined and won't come out of the ATM.
- https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC11100893/
  and the study referenced there
Now that you have told me something kinda useless tell me how much longer is my shlong due to mycroplastic 🤔😏
- It's likely causing your erectile disfunction, even if it tripled it's size.
- If your erection lasts longer then 4 hours... Nice.
“I'm a Barbie girl in a Barbie world”….
A plastic existence.
- PUSHING LITTLE CHILDREN
  
  With your fully automatics!
- I'm saying the weight is, and it's not just my skull, it's everyone's skull. It's likely we're all experiencing those issues. It's also not up there in a single slab, but embedded throughout, which hopefully mitigates that issue.
  A study under peer review claims those with dementia are more likely to have more plastic in their brains than the average person.
- The bigger question is, how do these microplastics pass the blood/brain barrier?
Don't give Elon Musk any more ideas please
I don't think this is true
- What information did I present that was untrue? I guess technically there's more plastic in your brain than required to make a plastic credit card.
  Here's additional supporting research.
  https://lemmy.world/comment/11941207
  
  From my understanding of the study they used an unverified method on a small part of the brain to get the amount of plastic in the entire brain. Which can be misleading because if you only look at the parts of the brain that are microplastics, the brain is 100% plastic. There hasn't been widespread replication of the results yet either nor has the paper been peer reviewed.
  I'm sceptical especially with the microplastic doomer narrative going around. As far as I know the danger of microplastics on the human body is yet to be determined. But it's definitely alarming I just don't think it's responsible to be saying there's a credit card in your brain.
- Do you lack reading comprehension, or are you just in denial?
  
  I gave the study a read. It's in preprint, it's yet to be peer reviewed and the method they used is atypical. Yeah I think disbelief is a pretty reasonable response since it's hard to imagine that much plastic wouldn't be making noticeable changes in behavior/physiology. But it's possible and the research seems rigorous

46 comments